[News] Netanyahu stops Gaza aid after Smotrich threatens to quit government

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeastmonitor.com
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250627-netanyahu-stops-gaza-aid-after-smotrich-threatens-to-quit-government/>
Netanyahu stops Gaza aid after Smotrich threatens to quit government
June 28, 2025
------------------------------

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a halt to aid
deliveries to northern Gaza after far-right Finance Minister Bezalel
Smotrich
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/israels-smotrich-threatens-to-topple-government-if-gaza-not-occupied/?utm_source=chatgpt.com>
threatened to quit the coalition, citing unverified claims that Hamas was
looting humanitarian supplies.

Smotrich reportedly made the ultimatum during a cabinet meeting,
referencing a widely circulated video on social media showing armed men
atop aid trucks. Although the footage was quickly seized upon by
pro-government figures including former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett,
Israel’s own military has been unable to confirm that the gunmen were
affiliated with Hamas.

*Haaretz* cited media outlets in the Gaza Strip who reported that the
gunmen are not Hamas operatives, but security guards sent by tribal leaders
to protect aid truck convoys from looting. The aid documented in the video
reached its destination – the UN warehouses in the Gaza Strip – and was
distributed to residents

Despite this, Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant ordered the army
to submit a “plan of action” within 48 hours to prevent what they described
as Hamas “taking control of the humanitarian aid entering northern Gaza and
stealing it from civilians.”

Israel has continually blamed Hamas for the looting of aid and used it as a
justification to bypass UN aid distribution mechanisms to install the
controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250531-humanitarian-camouflage-the-debut-of-the-gaza-humanitarian-foundation/?utm_source=chatgpt.com>
(GHF).

Observers have stressed that the worsening aid crisis has been driven not
by Hamas but by criminal gangs—some empowered by Israel itself. Among them
is the militia led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a figure named in UN documents for
systematically looting aid. His group has been armed and supported by
Israel in an apparent effort to establish a post-Hamas order in the Gaza
Strip.

An Israeli security source, quoted in *Yedioth Ahronoth*
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/israeli-report-warns-relying-on-abu-shababs-militia-in-gaza-destined-to-fail/>,
warned that the plan is failing. Abu Shabab’s group, active near Rafah, has
struggled to assert control or fulfil Israel’s expectations, and internal
divisions have complicated their operations.

In a public statement, the Abu Shabab militia paradoxically demanded an
“immediate solution” to the problem of aid theft—despite being implicated
in it. The group offered vague promises about a new distribution mechanism
but gave no details.

Israel’s reliance on criminal gangs and tribal militias to manage aid
distribution has failed to bring order. Although the US-funded GHF remains
the main agency overseeing aid deliveries, the presence of armed groups has
contributed to worsening insecurity.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, over 500 Palestinians have been
killed in the past month during Israeli shooting at food distribution
centres, as crowds gathered in desperation.

On Wednesday, 74 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, 33 of them while
waiting for food. The total Palestinian death toll since October 7 now
exceeds 56,000.

Aid agencies have repeatedly warned that the humanitarian catastrophe in
Gaza is deepening, with mass starvation looming. In June alone, over 1,600
children were hospitalised for severe malnutrition.
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