Al Jazeera Reporter Stunned When Elderly Gaza Woman Blames Hamas for Stealing

[Bob Riebe]

https://themessenger.com/news/gaza-palestine-humanitarian-aid-hamas-israel-war-al-jazeera-report

Al Jazzera shows it is what it was before.

The exchange came amid reports of rising tensions between Palestinian civilians and Hamas
Published 12/07/23 09:50 AM ET|Updated 5 hr ago
Aaron Feis

An elderly Gaza woman accused Hamas of hoarding humanitarian aid meant for Palestinian civilians during a television news interview, saying that the terrorists "can shoot me," to the apparent shock of the Al Jazeera journalist conducting the interview.

The Wednesday exchange was preserved by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute and circulated, in truncated form, by Israeli journalist Roi Kais on social media.

"The situation is difficult. No aid is coming in," the journalist said during the interview outside a hospital in the south Gaza city of Khan Younis, according to English subtitles added to the clip.

The unidentified woman quickly disputed the notion, saying that aid is making it to Gaza, but is snatched up before it can be broadly distributed.

"All the aid goes to [the tunnels] underground," she said, referring to the winding subterranean network of Hamas strongholds known as the Gaza Metro. "It does not reach all the people."

After a cut in the video, the woman said that the aid was meant for her and fellow refugees from Gaza's north.

"I am not afraid [of Hamas]," she said. "I am talking to them as well."

Before the woman could continue, the journalist interjected.

"A lot of aid is coming," he said, in apparent contradiction of his own previous assessment of the situation. "It is being distributed. This is what they say."

At this claim, the woman wagged her finger in denial.

"Hamas takes everything to their homes," she said. "They can take me, shoot me, or do whatever they want to me."

Pulling his microphone away from the woman and back to his own mouth, the reporter said, "It seems that the situation is unclear."

The clip ends with an unidentified man among a throng of onlookers exchanging words with the woman.
The woman's claim is supported by other video circulating online that shows armed men boarding humanitarian trucks entering Gaza and some civilians responding by throwing stones at them, amid reports of rising tensions between Palestinian civilians and Hamas.

Access to humanitarian aid into Gaza has been a near-constant point of contention since war began on Oct. 7 with Hamas terrorists’ brutal attack on Israel, which saw some 1,200 people murdered, approximately 240 more taken hostage and atrocities committed against unarmed civilians.

Throughout Israel’s retaliatory military campaign — which, according to the Strip’s Hamas-run health ministry, has seen some 16,200 people killed in Gaza — the flow of supplies including food, drinking water, medicine and fuel into Gaza has been tightly restricted, due in part to Israeli fears of the goods ending up in Hamas’ hands.
Amid international pressure, the restrictions gradually loosened as the war went on and aid particularly picked up amid a recent seven-day cease-fire. But newly intensified combat in Gaza’s south has once again brought the distribution of aid to a virtual halt.

After earlier fighting in Gaza’s north drove out masses of refugees, an estimated 2 million people — nearly the entirety of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million — are now believed to be crammed into the territory’s south.