Hamas Accused of Targeting Gaza Aid Workers with Bounties

“US President Trump has made clear he supports our work and has pledged as recently as yesterday to help broker a ceasefire and bring peace, which would help everyone deliver more aid to the people of Gaza. Hamas, through these violent and escalating threats, is showing the world it prefers chaos and starvation to peace and aid,” the statement continued. 

JNS reported on Thursday that the US State Department will provide $30 million to the GHF and is calling on other countries to support the private endeavor, an alternative to the United Nations that facilitates entry and delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza and aims to bypass Hamas looters. 

“We call on international leaders and aid groups to stand with us and with the people of Gaza. The people of Gaza, who show up to our sites every day in defiance of Hamas’s threats and brutality, deserve it,” the statement concluded. 

Since launching operations in late May, the foundation has reported delivering more than 51 million meals via nearly 900,000 boxes—marking, it says, the first time since the war’s onset that many Gazans have received food aid free from Hamas interference. 

On Sunday, GHF said it distributed 17,712 boxes of aid across two distribution sites, with no incidents reported at either site. In addition, GHF said it distributed one-and-a-half truckloads of potatoes at the SDS3 site in Khan Yunis as part of an expanded pilot program. 

“Today, as we surpass a remarkable milestone—more than 51 million meals delivered—we are keenly aware that we remain targets of Hamas’s brutality for simply trying to feed the people of Gaza in the middle of a war. Yet we will persist. The men, women, and children remind us why we are here: to feed the people of Gaza and stand with them in their time of need,” GHF interim Executive Director John Acree said on Sunday. 

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee echoed the group’s concerns in a statement on X on Saturday. 

“Last month President Trump told us to get food to civilians in Gaza but DON’T let Hamas steal it. GHF delivers 50 MILLIONTH meal tomorrow. NOT always pretty, but 800k+ unique recipients of food & 1ST TIME they received food FREE since start of war. Hamas has stolen or taxed it & now w/ GHF they CAN’T! 

“Hamas’ main tool to control Gaza is GONE. Hamas has put a bounty on head of everyone at GHF—Gazans & Americans. The UN remains SILENT. It’s why [President Trump] says Hamas can’t stay or ever govern Gaza. They don’t care if they kill or starve their own people,” Huckabee wrote. 

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a joint statement overnight Wednesday ordering the Israel Defense Forces to present, within 48 hours, a plan to prevent Hamas from seizing humanitarian aid entering the northern Gaza Strip. 

The directive follows intelligence reports indicating that Hamas is once again commandeering aid shipments and diverting them from Gaza’s civilian population. 

The statement came on the heels of a video posted to social media by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, which appears to show armed Hamas terrorists riding atop food trucks after taking control of them. 

“This video was filmed today,” Bennett wrote on X. “Soldiers on the ground explained to me that these are the current instructions—to bring in trucks without control. This is how they continue to feed Hamas with money and power. Government ministers pledged that ‘not a single grain will enter,’ and as usual, the reality is the opposite. Shameful.” 

According to Israel’s Channel 12 News, the introduction of aid to Gaza had been halted until the IDF presented its plan. The decision to pause deliveries was made shortly after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich issued an ultimatum to Netanyahu: immediately stop aid from reaching Hamas or risk losing his support in the governing coalition.