The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an American NGO working to bypass Hamas by distributing aid directly to Gazans, released an “urgent” statement detailing a significant Hamas attack on Wednesday evening, leaving multiple aid workers dead and a possible hostage situation.
“We are still gathering facts, but what we know is devastating: there are at least five fatalities, multiple injuries, and fear that some of our team members may have been taken hostage,” the statement described.
According to the GHS, “At approximately 10 p.m. Gaza time, a bus carrying more than two dozen members of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation team, local Palestinians working side-by-side with the U.S. GHF team to deliver critical aid, were brutally attacked by Hamas. At the time of the attack, our team was en route to one of our distribution centers in the area west of Khan Younis.”
The statement explained that multiple people are “still unaccounted for” and called on the international community to immediately “condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,” adding that the violence was “unprovoked” and came after days of Hamas threats.
“This attack did not happen in a vacuum. For days, Hamas has openly threatened our team, our aid workers, and the civilians who receive aid from us,” GHF underscored. “These threats were met with silence.”
“The GHF holds Hamas fully responsible for taking the lives of our dedicated workers who have been distributing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people at the foundation’s sites in central and southern Gaza.
“Tonight, the world must see this for what it is: an attack on humanity. We call on the international community to immediately condemn Hamas for this unprovoked attack and continued threat against our people simply trying to feed the Palestinian people,” the statement concluded.
According to the Jerusalem Post, text messages were received by aid workers earlier this week from Hamas terrorists, threatening: “We are fully aware of everything you are doing, and all your movements are being monitored with extreme precision.”
In what the message called GHF’s “final warning,” the terrorists asserted that if the aid workers “Continue down this path,” they will have “severe consequences.”
“You will bear full responsibility for the outcomes of your actions,” the text cautioned. “Stop now, or else.”
The GHF, which works in partnership with Israel, in an operational updatereleased earlier this week, highlighted that on Tuesday alone, the foundation was able to distribute over two million meals directly to Gazan civilians.
The substantial work of the foundation has loosened Hamas’s grasp on the Strip. Prior to the GHF, numerous reports showed that the terrorists were stealing the aid entering Gaza and selling it back to civilians, keeping the Gazan population dependent on Hamas. Israel began Operation Gideon’s Chariots to thwart this stranglehold.
Amir Tsarfati, Founder and President of Behold Israel, recently described the shift in the Strip following the Israeli operation.
“Imagine going to an aid station to buy your weekly supply of food. Your money is in your hand, but the person distributing the supplies refuses to take it. ‘It’s free,’ he tells you. ‘This aid has always been free.’ With your heavy box on your shoulder, you walk away stunned. For months, you’ve been paying exorbitant prices for meager supplies, but now you have a package that is at least twice as heavy, and it was totally free. That’s the moment you realize that the previous people at the aid stations who said they were your friends were really your enemies, grifting enormous amounts of money from you and your people,” Tsarfati emphasized. “That is the experience that thousands of Gazans are currently having about Hamas.”
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