As the U.S.-based GHF aid foundation issued a sharp condemnation of Hamas for a deadly attack on an aid workers' bus in Gaza, the IDF revealed evidence of Hamas’ economic exploitation of humanitarian assistance meant for civilians in the Strip.
During the war, according to an IDF spokesperson, Hamas operatives joined aid convoys—sometimes openly, sometimes under disguise—to seize and take control of goods meant for civilians. Based on intercepted conversations and authentic documents, Israeli intelligence found that Hamas declared itself the authority over humanitarian aid distribution in Gaza, and in practice commandeered large portions of it. Documents revealed that Hamas established fixed quotas—between 15% and over 25%—of all aid to be diverted systematically for its own use.

A document discovered in the Gaza Strip and published Thursday shows an official Hamas decision to set the percentage of aid confiscation and adjust it periodically based on internal assessments. The diverted aid was reportedly either sold for profit in local markets or distributed to Hamas fighters and officials. Additional information points to the smuggling of cigarettes into Gaza, sold at inflated prices by Hamas members, who also threatened independent vendors.

The IDF believes Hamas exploited the logistics of aid organizations, whether through direct cooperation or deception, and profited hundreds of millions of shekels from the scheme.

As part of the disclosure, the IDF presented a graphic outlining the four mechanisms Hamas used to exploit aid: confiscation, smuggling, skimming (deductions) and protection rackets, along with flow charts of external money transfers, intercepted calls between Gaza residents describing the system, and official Hamas documents—some with translated versions—detailing internal directives for allocating aid quotas.