This article was originally published on JNS.org on August 2, 2025.
Tons of humanitarian aid continue to pour into Gaza, flown in from Europe, Egypt and Jordan, distributed by Americans, monitored by officials such as David Satterfield and Stephanie Hallett, and confirmed even by the United Nations. Millions of meals are being delivered. Yet none of it is altering the grim reality on the ground.
That’s because the aid game is not being played on a level field. Hamas is not a government trying to feed its people. It is a terrorist organization committed to sacrificing its own population for PR victories. We need only recall Yahya Sinwar’s own words: He spoke of needing 1 million Palestinian casualties to accuse Israel of genocide. A chilling admission and a strategic plan.
Genocide? Let’s look at the numbers. In 1967, Gaza had a population of about 350,000. Today, it is approaching 2.5 million. The only thing multiplying faster than its population is the spread of misinformation.
Israel once placed real hope in Gaza. When it unilaterally withdrew in 2005, dismantling 21 thriving Jewish communities and evacuating 9,000 Israeli citizens, it did so in the name of peace. The dream was that Gaza might flourish, perhaps even grow into a prosperous Palestinian state rooted in agriculture and technology, living side by side with Israel. What followed was not peace, but an armed fortress funded by Qatar and Iran, crisscrossed by more than 500 kilometers of terror tunnels.
Despite ongoing rocket fire, Israel has facilitated a continuous stream of humanitarian aid into Gaza. U.N. figures confirm it. But what actually reaches the people is another story. Since May 2010, Hamas has looted 1,753 aid trucks, 87% of all deliveries. Of the 27,434 tons of food meant for civilians, Hamas has stolen 23,353 tons.
We see it daily: Raw footage of ordinary Gazans scrambling for food while armed Hamas operatives open fire not on Israelis, but on their own people. And when the Israeli military responds to armed threats, headlines portray it as indiscriminate brutality rather than defensive necessity.
Why? Because the media needs a villain. And in their narrative, the ideal villain is a white, Jewish, Western “oppressor.” Every military response, every act of Israeli self-defense, is filtered through a lens of ideological bias. The facts? Irrelevant. The context? Ignored. This isn’t journalism; it’s propaganda.
Consider the story of Mohammed al-Mutawaq, the child paraded as a malnourished victim of Israeli cruelty. The New York Times later admitted that he suffered not from starvation, but from a severe genetic illness. But that correction came too late, if it registered at all. The image had already served its purpose, fueling the false narrative that malnutrition in Gaza is the result of Israeli policy, not Hamas theft.
This is more than dishonest. It is dangerous. The international community—especially in Europe—appears more interested in rewarding Hamas than in stopping it. While hostages remain in captivity, while Hamas uses food as a weapon and people as shields, the European Union is preparing to vote for Palestinian statehood, a gesture that would hand Hamas its greatest political victory since Oct. 7, 2023.
And still, world leaders ask: “Why won’t Hamas negotiate?” The answer is simple: They don’t need to. Every concession, every ceasefire, every aid truck hijacked without consequence is a sign of Western weakness—and a step closer to Hamas’s long-term goal: the destruction of Israel.
When the United Nations votes on Palestinian statehood, nothing will change on the ground. Hostages will remain in Gaza. Aid will continue to be stolen. Civilians will keep dying not because of Israeli actions, but because of Hamas’s deliberate policy of human suffering.
And the world will become more dangerous—for Israelis, for Palestinians and for anyone who believes that truth still matters.
