Hamas Steals Aid — But The New York Times and Wall Street Journal Blame Israel

The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have recently reported on starvation in Gaza, blaming Israel and all but absolving the terrorist group Hamas. But this ignores the reality on the ground, and only helps Hamas spin its narrative.

In the Times report, “No Proof Hamas Routinely Stole U.N. Aid, Israeli Military Officials Say,” reporter Natan Odenheimer claims:

… the Israeli military never found proof that the Palestinian militant group had systematically stolen aid from the United Nations, the biggest supplier of emergency assistance to Gaza for most of the war, according to two senior Israeli military officials and two other Israelis involved in the matter. (NYT, July 26, 2025)

For starters, the Times headline would have been less deceptive if it had read “Some Israeli Officials Say,” because there is no doubt that other senior Israeli military officials would have strongly disagreed.

In fact, at the behest of senior IDF officials, the IDF website has a special section titled The UNRWA-Hamas Connection, which includes numerous reports filled with conclusive evidence proving that UNRWA (the main UN body in Gaza that distributes aid) is essentially an arm of Hamas.

Hamas freely uses UNRWA facilities for its terrorist purposes (with only sporadic and perfunctory objections from the UN), and many UNRWA officials and workers are either closely associated with Hamas or are actual members of Hamas. UNRWA workers even took part in the October 7, 2023, mass terrorist attack on Israel.

In other words, Odenheimer’s core claim that Israel has presented no proof that Hamas stole aid from the United Nations is both inaccurate and nonsensical, since Hamas can’t, in effect, steal from itself. Taking control of UNRWA aid, appropriating some for its own use, controlling its distribution to civilians, and selling the rest to shopkeepers are basics in Hamas funding of its operations and control of the Gaza population.

In support of his claims Odenheimer cited a Reuters report based on a USAID study, noting:

An internal U.S. government analysis came to [a] similar conclusion, Reuters reported on Friday. It found no evidence of systematic Hamas theft of U.S.-funded humanitarian supplies, the report said.

This is more deception. Odenheimer omitted key points from the Reuters report, including 1) that the State Department disputed USAID’s conclusions and “accused traditional humanitarian groups of covering up ‘aid corruption,’’’ 2) that “because Palestinians who receive aid cannot be vetted, it was possible that U.S.-funded supplies went to administrative officials of Hamas,” and 3) that “The majority of incidents [of theft or diversion] could not be definitively attributed to a specific actor … Partners often largely discovered the commodities had been stolen in transit without identifying the perpetrator.”

Thus, contrary to Odenheimer’s claims, the details of the Reuters report did not exonerate Hamas at all.

Whatever the facts, it seems that Odenheimer and his Times colleagues will do journalistic backflips to deflect blame from Hamas and onto Israel.

Unfortunately, the news pages of The Wall Street Journal are no better, as exemplified in its July 24 story “More Children Starve in Gaza Food Crisis.”

Accompanied by a large photo of Palestinians carrying bags of flour, it all but concealed the reality that Hamas disrupts and exploits humanitarian aid for its own purposes and bears major responsibility for the hunger in Gaza, burying a dismissive reference to any such notion in the 13th paragraph. Thus, the emotive story about a reported increase in child starvation avers, only in passing, “Israel and Arab intelligence officials say the group [Hamas] steals aid and uses it to fund its war effort, which it denies.”

That was all — a nothing line surrounded by personal accounts of Palestinian suffering. The reference to both Israel and “Arab intelligence” could have cued the story’s reporters, Feliz Solomon, Abeer Ayyoub, and Summer Said, to investigate and report seriously on the issue.

Both Arabs and Israelis agree Hamas is stealing aid to fuel the war. Why bury that critical statement?

In an account largely blaming Israel for starving children — in fact, more children than ever — where are Journal news editors to demand full coverage by their reporters on this story? The publication trumpets its professional commitment to its readers this way: “Trust is a precious thing and …we are responsible for earning the trust of our readers every day. We are committed to providing the tools needed to help differentiate high-quality, fact-based news and analysis from misinformation.”

Omission and obfuscation of key information such as the Journal story focused on hungry children is “misinformation” that can radically mislead readers.

The opinion pages of the Journal are, as is well known, different from the news side that tilts against Israel almost daily, often presenting key factual information. Thus on July 25, an op-ed by Yasser Abu Shabab entitled “Gazans Are Finished With Hamas” described conditions in eastern Rafah where he and his Bedouin tribe have gained ascendance over Hamas, leading to greatly improved conditions in which people “all live without fear of Hamas stealing aid…”

This matter-of-fact observation underscored the common understanding about the role of Hamas in manipulating aid that The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal strain to conceal.

Until recently, Andrea Levin was Executive Director and President of CAMERA, and Alex Safian PhD, was Associate Director and Research Director.