No reports of Hamas blocking, seizing humanitarian aid to Gaza: US special envoy

There is no evidence that Hamas has blocked or seized humanitarian aid in Gaza, the U.S. special envoy to the region said Saturday.

David Satterfield told reporters during a trip to Jordan that there have been no reports of Hamas interdiction of aid. That goes against claims from the Israeli military, which cited potential Hamas seizures as the main reason to prevent fuel from entering the territory.

Fuel supplies in Gaza are dwindling, running the risk that hospitals will lose power for life-saving equipment and that future humanitarian aid convoys can’t drive through the territory, the United Nations warned.

“We really appeal that we need to find a solution to the fuel,” Thomas White, director of the United Nation’s humanitarian operations in Gaza, said last week. “Otherwise, our aid operation will stop. People will not have access to clean drinking water. Hospitals are going to be closing. And in fact, our whole aid operation will start winding down.”

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 9,448, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have also been killed in violence and Israeli raids.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have also been killed in the conflict, most of them in the Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas that started the fighting, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.

Israel, which has blocked all border crossings into Gaza, has allowed limited humanitarian aid to enter the region but has prevented fuel deliveries, claiming that they could be stolen and assist Hamas.

The Gaza border authority did, however, briefly open the Rafah crossing into Egypt earlier this week to a select number of foreign passport holders, diplomats and civilians who were injured.

The Biden administration has recently urged for a “humanitarian pause” in the war in Gaza in order to assist civilians. The administration has sworn off a full cease-fire in the conflict.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel on Friday to press the issue, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled that there will be no pause in the fighting until all of the hostages were returned.

Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza stepped up again Friday as forces moved into Gaza City, the territory’s largest settlement and the focus of weeks of Israeli bombing, destroying much of the city.