U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee criticized over 25 Western countries for their recent calls for an end to the Gaza war, accusing them of supporting the terror group Hamas. In a post on X, Huckabee stated that when Hamas deems a nation’s actions as ‘good work,’ it implies the nation is ‘doing evil.’ This comes after Hamas praised a joint statement by the United Kingdom and 28 other nations expressing support for an immediate end to the conflict in Gaza. Israel and the U.S. have denied accusations of starving civilians in Gaza, blaming the ongoing humanitarian crisis on Hamas’s disruption of aid distribution. Despite claims of hunger-related deaths, officials argue that the issue stems from Hamas looting and selling aid at exorbitant prices rather than deliberate targeting of civilians.
The U.S. and EU-designated terror group Hamas reiterated its claims that Israel was carrying out a ‘policy of starvation’ on the coastal enclave amid unverified reports that people have died due to hunger-related reasons. Fox News Digital has not been able to independently verify such reports. The statement’s condemnation of the killing of over 800 Palestinian civilians at the gates of U.S.-Israeli-controlled aid checkpoints underscores the brutality of this mechanism, Hamas wrote following a statement issued by the U.K. Foreign Office and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy. ‘The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths,’ read Lammy’s statement, which was also signed by the foreign ministers of 28 countries. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gidon Saar responded on X, stating that Hamas’s praise for the statement is the best proof of the mistake they made – part of them out of good intentions and part of them out of an obsession against Israel.
Since launching a new model for food aid distribution in the war-torn strip in early May, Israel and the U.S. have come under fire from the international community over near-daily reports of people dying while attempting to receive aid or not receiving any aid at all. Israel has refuted claims that there is hunger in Gaza or that it is using starvation as a tactic of the now 22-month-old war. Rather, officials have said they are working to prevent Hamas from stealing aid being distributed by veteran, mostly U.N.-run, humanitarian agencies and sold for exorbitant prices in a bid to continue funding terror operations. The U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said on Monday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ‘deplored the growing reports of both children and adults suffering from malnutrition and strongly condemned the ongoing violence, including the shooting, killing and injuring of people attempting to get food.’
Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz wrote on X that ‘Not only has Israel never starved or targeted civilians, but it goes above and beyond to protect civilians in the most complex of war zones like Gaza.’ He added, ‘Culpability for harm inflicted to civilians rests on terrorist Hamas and Hamas only.’ On Tuesday, Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, said in a statement that ‘twenty-one children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in various areas across the Gaza Strip.’ ‘Every moment, new cases of malnutrition and starvation are arriving at Gaza’s hospitals,’ he said. Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, told Fox News Digital that he was ‘not aware of a single official report that people died because of starvation or hunger.’ He clarified, ‘If there are some local problems of supply, it is because of Hamas – not because of the IDF.’ Michael also noted that Hamas ‘loots, robs and steals the humanitarian aid, partially for themselves, to feed themselves and the rest is sold in very high prices to the local population in order to make money.’
Israel’s goal of weakening Hamas’s grip on the Strip – and on aid agencies – appeared to be working on Monday, with The Washington Post reporting that the terror group ‘is facing its worst financial and administrative crisis in its four-decade history’ and is struggling to find the resources it needs to continue fighting Israel or rule Gaza. Quoting a former high-level Israeli intelligence officer and current Israel Defense Forces officers, the report said that Hamas could no longer pay its fighters or rebuild its underground terror tunnels, where it is believed to be holding some 50 hostages, both alive and dead, who were kidnapped during its Oct. 7 attack.