NBC News has just reported that Hamas is stockpiling massive amounts of fuel in order to fight against Israel with rockets and keep the electricity in their terror tunnels going.
Meanwhile hospitals in Gaza are about to run out of electricity:
Here’s more:
As U.N. officials say hospitals in Gaza are running dangerously low on fuel, Hamas is maintaining a stockpile of more than 200,000 gallons of fuel for the rockets it fires into Israel and the generators that provide clean air and electricity to its network of underground tunnels, according to U.S. officials, current and former Israeli officials and academics.
The statements come as President Joe Biden called for a humanitarian pause in Gaza and U.N. officials warned that aid agencies, water treatment plants and bakeries there may soon run out of fuel. Israel, which has allowed a limited number of trucks carrying food, water and medicine into the enclave, continues to ban deliveries of fuel, which it says Hamas will use for military purposes.
Hamas, meanwhile, has repeatedly demanded fuel deliveries to Gaza during negotiations to allow foreign nationals to leave the enclave and in talks about the release of 240 people it kidnapped.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday on CNN that Hamas has been blocking Americans from leaving Gaza. “Hamas has been preventing their departure and making a series of demands,” said Sullivan, who declined to describe the demands. Other U.S. officials said fuel deliveries were among the stumbling blocks.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified before Congress on Tuesday that Hamas is refusing to share its fuel with hospitals in Gaza.
“Hamas has its own supply stockpile of fuel,” Blinken told the Senate Appropriations Committee. “If it cared a whit about the people of Gaza, it would make sure itself that it used that fuel to have the hospitals be able to operate the incubators, stay turned on, etc. But, of course, it doesn’t.”
Israeli military officials estimate that Hamas has 200,000 gallons of diesel in storage. Experts say the exact amount of fuel the group has is impossible to know.
Israel released a conversation yesterday about Hamas stealing fuel from a hospital in Gaza:
According to NBC, Blinken believes it’s our responsibility to take care of the people of Gaza because Hamas won’t do it:
Current and former U.S. and Israeli officials agree that, even if Hamas is hoarding fuel, the international community has a responsibility to provide humanitarian aid to Gazan civilians.
“We have an obligation to do everything we can, if Hamas is not going to do it, to look out for people in Gaza,” Blinken said. “So we are working on a mechanism that can give fuel to where it’s needed, particularly if it’s just hospitals, bakeries [and] desalination plants.”
More than 200 trucks of food, water, medicines and medical equipment have crossed from Egypt into Gaza since the start of the war, according to U.N. officials. But Israel has banned the delivery of fuel since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack, which killed 1,400 people.
Anything of value that goes into Gaza will almost certainly be stolen and used for terrorism, which is why Israel won’t allow fuel into The Strip. How exactly will the US get fuel in there without Hamas getting their hands on it?