The US has released drone footage showing what it claims is Hamas hijacking an aid truck in southern Gaza.
The video shows a number of men appearing to move the driver from the cab of the vehicle then leaving him inert in the road’s central reservation.
It was published by the US Central Command, which has recently set up a multinational headquarters in Israel.
The incident took place while Gen Dan Caine, the US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, was on an official visit to Israel as a guest of the IDF chief of staff.
Israel has long argued that Gaza’s hunger problems in the first half of the summer were primarily caused by Hamas’s widespread looting of the aid supply, although this was denied by the United Nations and other aid organisations.
Centcom said in a statement that its new Civil-Military Coordination Centre “observed suspected Hamas operatives looting an aid truck travelling as part of a humanitarian convoy delivering needed assistance from international partners to Gazans in northern Khan Younis”.
Credit: US Central Command
The footage was shot from an MQ-9 drone flying over Gaza as part of the US effort to monitor the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The US said the truck driver’s “current status is unknown”.
Sharing the footage online, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, said: “Hamas continues to deprive the people of Gaza of the humanitarian aid they desperately need. This theft undermines international efforts in support of president Trump’s 20-point plan to deliver critical assistance to innocent civilians.”
He added: “Hamas is the impediment. They must lay down their arms and stop their looting so that Gaza can have a brighter future.”
Hamas issued a statement denying any involvement.
However, Gaza experts pointed out that the presence of a pick-up truck of the type commonly used by Hamas pointed to the terror group’s involvement.
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Gaza native now based in the US, said: “What makes the conclusion of the video 100 per cent is the presence of a pick-up truck full of Hamas operatives, passing by the truck as the knocked-out driver is being thrown in the median divider of the road.
“These are the pick-up trucks that Hamas’s ‘police’ and enforcers use to roam around Gaza, execute, murder, kidnap, torture, and disappear people.”
The UN has reported a significant decrease in the looting of humanitarian aid in Gaza since the ceasefire came into force last month.
Stéphane Dujarric, a UN spokesman, said in a briefing on Friday that 5 per cent of collected supplies had been intercepted between Oct 10 and 28, compared to more than 80 per cent between May 19 and Oct 9.
Israel currently controls approximately 53 per cent of Gaza, with Hamas in control of most, but not all, of the urban areas to the west of the “yellow” ceasefire line.
The vast majority of the Gaza population also lives to the west of the line.
