Everyone wants there to be help for innocent civilians caught up in conflict. “I think it’s important to understand the reason why aid can’t get to them,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said of Gaza civilians on Sunday.
Rubio appeared alongside Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) on the CBS show “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan.
“Hamas has built this extensive system of tunnels. I don’t care if they got a great deal on the concrete. It’s expensive to build this extensive system of tunnels,” Rubio said. “That’s millions of dollars that could have gone to create an economy, to feed people, to build hospitals and serve civilians. They didn’t do it.”
Rubio added that there is a “real concern” and “very legitimate reason to believe that any aid that goes in there will be grabbed by Hamas and used for their purposes at the expense of the civilian population.”
“Hamas has a track record of zero when it comes to caring about the lives of civilians or society in general. They’re entirely on the war footing. It’s all they do,” Rubio said. “I think there’s good reason to believe that any additional aid would go directly to Hamas and would be controlled by them.”
During his State of the Union address on Thursday night, U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States will make a temporary pier to deliver aid to the Palestinian residents of Gaza. U.S. troop boots won’t be on the ground in the Strip, he insisted.
Of a Biden administration official’s claim that Hamas isn’t appropriating aid, Rubio said, “I don’t know what he’s talking about. How does Hamas get food? Hamas does not have an economy. Everything Hamas gets comes from abroad, from Iranians and from what they take.”
“The evidence is in place that they have existed as an organization without any means of generating revenue other than what they are able to capture,” the senator said. “That’s just common sense.”
