Palestinians gather to receive aid, including food supplies provided by World Food Program (WFP), outside a United Nations distribution center, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, Aug. 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

How ironic is it that while the International Criminal Court (ICC) decided last week to blame Israel for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is placing the blame on Hamas.

A reporter from official PA TV stationed in the Gaza Strip reported that Hamas steals 28% of Gazans’ salaries, as well as other money transfers:

Official PA TV host: “There are other crimes that are being committed against the civilians [in Gaza]. They are being financially extorted through [Hamas’] deduction of part of their money.

In other words, every employee, whether he is a PA employee, a state employee, or works for any other source, or someone who even wants to receive a transfer from his relatives abroad — they must pay a heavy sum…” [emphasis added]

[Official PA TV, Nov. 13, 2024]

Later in the story, a PA reporter revealed that the sum was 28% of employees’ salaries:

Official PA TV reporter in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza: “There is no trade in cash. The cash is worn out in the central and southern areas [of the Gaza Strip], and even in the north.

The [only] ones who have cash are certain groups. If you want to receive your salary in cash of more or less good quality, they [Hamas] deduct part of your salary. The deducted sum is 28%. They deduct more than a quarter of the salary.” [emphasis added]

[Official PA TV, Nov. 13, 2024]

An editorial by the official PA daily also criticized Hamas for continuously stealing the humanitarian aid that Israel is letting in for the benefit of Gazan civilians:

The aid that is arriving there [in the northern Gaza Strip] after many hardships … is exclusively controlled by the Hamas militias and others, until it arrives in the greedy free market of commerce that craves forbidden profit. [emphasis added]

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 10, 2024]

The editorial pointed out that the survival of the Gazan civilians is no longer connected to “surviving the missiles of the Israeli fighter jets,” but is simply a struggle of “seeking a loaf of bread at a sane price”:

The suffering of our people in the northern Gaza Strip is no longer the suffering of surviving the missiles of the Israeli fighter jets and drones and is not the suffering of seeking refuge, rather it is the suffering of seeking a loaf of bread at a sane price, and a cigarette at the cost of 1 [Israeli] shekel. [emphasis added]

Throughout the 2023 Gaza war, Palestinian Media Watch has exposed Hamas’ unscrupulous theft of international aid meant for Gazan civilians, turning the humanitarian efforts into terror support to sustain its war against Israel.

The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.