Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli 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 comes 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 has been halted until the IDF presents its new 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. The suspension of aid will remain in effect pending the IDF’s recommendations.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation: Direct aid operations continue
While Israel’s government grapples with the challenge of keeping aid out of Hamas’s hands, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation—a U.S.-backed group established to bypass Hamas and deliver food directly to Gazans—continues to expand its operations.
On Wednesday, GHF completed a second delivery to the SDS4 distribution site, bringing the day’s total to 42,240 boxes, equivalent to 2,439,360 meals. To date, GHF reports distributing approximately 44,094,622 meals via nearly 791,520 boxes across three main distribution sites.
Aid distribution at all GHF sites proceeded without incident, according to interim executive director John Acree.
“I’m proud of the GHF team for once again safely distributing nearly two million meals to the people of Gaza today without any injury or incident at any of our sites. This brings our total meals delivered to nearly 44 million in just four weeks. We are always coordinating with our partners on the ground to make further improvements to our operations to ensure the safest and most secure aid distribution possible,” said Acree.
GHF continued to push back against what it calls misinformation spread by Hamas and echoed by some international news outlets. The organization noted that recent reports of violence near its sites have been discredited, and that some media outlets, including Reuters and CBS, have issued corrections after initially misattributing incidents to GHF’s operations. “The Hamas-affiliated Gaza Health Ministry is not a credible source of information,” GHF asserted in its latest update.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that the United States is providing $30 million to GHF, marking the first known financial contribution from the U.S. government to the organization.