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LONDON: Israeli government claims that aid supplied by the UN into Gaza was regularly stolen by Hamas were not substantiated by evidence.

said it spoke to two Israeli military officials and two other Israelis with knowledge of the matter on condition of anonymity. They suggested that the UN’s methods for getting aid into the enclave were “largely effective” before Israel sealed off access to the territory in March this year following the collapse of a ceasefire.

Israel and the US backed a new group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, giving it a near-monopoly on delivering aid supplies into Gaza in May. The GHF has been fiercely criticized for its methods by the UN and other global bodies, as well as national governments including the UK and France, amid reports of mass shootings at its distribution centers and independent claims that famine has subsequently swept the enclave.

Israel, which accused UN employees of taking part in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on the country, justified the move by saying aid distributed by the UN and other groups was being taken and stockpiled by Hamas, with Benjamin Netanyahu saying in March: “Hamas is currently taking control of all supplies and goods entering Gaza.”

But, the , these claims ran counter to evidence the military had suggesting the UN’s methods of aid delivery were robust.

Hamas was able to steal supplies from smaller aid organizations, they said, because they lacked the planning and security capacity of the UN. A Reuters report on Friday said the US government had reached the same conclusion that Israeli claims the UN was failing to deliver aid because of theft by Hamas were untrue.

Israeli military officials met in March with government advisers to express concerns about the GHF’s ability to distribute aid, urging them to allow continued UN access to areas the GHF was failing to sufficiently supply, the sources told the NYT. 

This request was denied by the Netanyahu administration, but the government later relented, allowing limited UN access to Gaza after the scale of hunger and the ineffectiveness of the GHF began to become apparent.

Since May 19, the Israeli officials told the NYT, half of aid entering Gaza has been overseen by the UN, which was previously the biggest supplier, and other groups, with the rest overseen by the GHF.

Former UN official Georgios Petropoulos, who helped oversee aid coordination with Israel into Gaza for over a year of the war, said: “For months, we and other organizations were dragged through the mud by accusations that Hamas steals from us.”

He added: “If the UN had been taken at face value months ago, we wouldn’t have wasted all this time and Gazans wouldn’t be starving and being shot at trying to feed their families.”

About 1,100 Palestinians have been shot by Israeli soldiers and private contractors at the four GHF aid distribution centers operating in Gaza, according to local health authorities. Many thousands more are at risk of famine, with doctors in the enclave saying malnutrition is rife, especially among children.

The GHF has also been criticized for failing to provide enough aid at the sites it runs.

A group of more than 100 international organizations have warned of “mass starvation,” and urged Israel to lift its restrictions on them delivering aid into Gaza.

On July 23 a group of 28 national governments, including the UK, France and Canada, as well as the EU, signed a statement condemning what they called the “drip-feeding of aid” into Gaza.

Since being permitted access in May, the UN says Israel has also failed to provide enough safe entry routes into Gaza for it to deliver aid.

The Israeli government has accused the UN of not collecting aid supplies based near a border crossing to send into Gaza as a reason for the lack of supplies into the territory.

Earlier this week it refused to extend the visa of senior UN official Jonathan Whittall, who oversees humanitarian affairs in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, over claims he “spread lies about Israel.”

In a statement, the Israeli military said it was “well documented” that Hamas “exploited humanitarian aid to fund terrorist activities.”

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer claimed this week that there was “no famine caused by Israel” in Gaza, blaming Hamas and the UN for food shortages.

Almost 62,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began operations in Gaza in October 2023. Many thousands more have been wounded, with millions displaced, lacking access to clean water, food, medical aid and shelter.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: A mother pressed a final kiss to what remained of her 5-month-old daughter and wept. Esraa Abu Halib’s baby now weighed less than when she was born.

On a sunny street in shattered Gaza, the bundle containing Zainab Abu Halib represented the latest death from starvation after 21 months of war and Israeli restrictions on aid.

The baby was brought to the pediatric department of Nasser Hospital on Friday. She was already dead. A worker at the morgue carefully removed her Mickey Mouse-printed shirt, pulling it over her sunken, open eyes. He pulled up the hems of her pants to show her knobby knees. His thumb was wider than her ankle. He could count the bones of her chest.

The girl had weighed over 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) when she was born, her mother said. When she died, she weighed less than 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds).

A doctor said it was a case of “severe, severe starvation.”

She was wrapped in a white sheet for burial and placed on the sandy ground for prayers. The bundle was barely wider than the imam’s stance. He raised his open hands and invoked Allah once more.

She needed special formula

Zainab was one of 85 children to die of malnutrition-related causes in Gaza in the past three weeks, according to the latest toll released by the territory’s Health Ministry on Saturday. Another 42 adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the same period, it said.

“She needed a special baby formula which did not exist in Gaza,” Zainab’s father, Ahmed Abu Halib, told The Associated Press as he prepared for her funeral prayers in the hospital’s courtyard in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Dr. Ahmed Al-Farah, head of the pediatric department, said the girl had needed a special type of formula that helps with babies allergic to cow’s milk.

He said she hadn’t suffered from any diseases, but the lack of the formula led to chronic diarrhea and vomiting. She wasn’t able to swallow as her weakened immune system led to a bacterial infection and sepsis, and quickly lost more weight.

’Many will follow’

The child’s family, like many of Gaza’s Palestinians, lives in a tent, displaced. Her mother, who also has suffered from malnutrition, said she breastfed the girl for only six weeks before trying to feed her formula.

“With my daughter’s death, many will follow,” she said. “Their names are on a list that no one looks at. They are just names and numbers. We are just numbers. Our children, whom we carried for nine months and then gave birth to, have become just numbers.” Her loose robe hid her own weight loss.

The arrival of children suffering from malnutrition has surged in recent weeks, Al-Farah said. His department, with a capacity of eight beds, has been treating about 60 cases of acute malnutrition. They have placed additional mattresses on the ground.

Another malnutrition clinic, affiliated with the hospital, receives an average of 40 cases weekly, he said.

“Unless the crossings are opened and food and baby formula are allowed in for this vulnerable segment of Palestinian society, we will witness unprecedented numbers of deaths,” he warned.

Doctors and aid workers in Gaza blame Israel’s restrictions on the entry of aid and medical supplies. Food security experts warn of famine in the territory of over 2 million people.

‘Shortage of everything’

After ending the latest ceasefire in March, Israel cut off the entry of food, medicine, fuel and other supplies completely to Gaza for 2 ½ months, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages.

Under international pressure, Israel slightly eased the blockade in May. Since then, it has allowed in around 4,500 trucks for the UN and other aid groups to distribute, including 2,500 tons of baby food and high-calorie special food for children, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said last week. Israel says baby formula has been included, plus formula for special needs.

The average of 69 trucks a day, however, is far below the 500 to 600 trucks a day the UN says are needed for Gaza. The UN says it has been unable to distribute much of the aid because hungry crowds and gangs take most of it from its arriving trucks.

Separately, Israel has backed the US-registered Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which in May opened four centers distributing boxes of food supplies. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near those new aid sites, the UN human rights office says.

Much of Gaza’s population now relies on aid.

“There was a shortage of everything,” the mother of Zainab said as she grieved. “How can a girl like her recover?”