Hamas’s control over the people of Gaza is slipping, as seen most recently in its inability to keep Palestinians from raiding food storage facilities to escape starvation.
A warehouse operated by the United Nations was broken into on Wednesday by a mob of Palestinian civilians desperate to acquire food amid the worsening famine.
Video of the event shows hundreds of people pouring into the food warehouse, some even tearing off the siding to get inside. Mobs jostled with individuals attempting to exit, carrying large white sacks of food. Gunfire could be heard.
Hamas has tried to maintain order and curb the civilians’ growing opposition to the terrorist group’s authority.
Leaders have warned Palestinian civilians that anyone caught stealing food or supplies “will pay the price” and that the group “will take the necessary measures” to prevent mob behavior.
But with little aid to provide civilians themselves and just a skeleton crew of combatants left, Hamas is seeing its power and influence evaporate.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on the same day as the warehouse raid that Mohammad Sinwar, one of the last remaining leaders of Hamas in Gaza, was eliminated in a recent airstrike.
He signaled that the terrorist’s death might make plans for a ceasefire more possible from his government’s perspective.
“In the last two days, we have been in a dramatic turn towards a complete defeat of Hamas,” Netanyahu told the Israeli legislature.
He also announced that Israel would be “taking control of food distribution” — a concerning prospect for Palestinians who had just experienced an 11-week embargo by the Israel Defense Forces on humanitarian aid.
Meanwhile, the United States remains hopeful that negotiations to end the conflict will soon make a breakthrough.
President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Wednesday that preparations for the next round of peace talks are being reviewed.
“We are on the precipice of sending out a new term sheet that hopefully will be delivered later on today,” Witkoff said. “The president is going to review it.”
The U.S. and Israel have teamed up to mobilize their new joint relief effort, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
A mob similar to the one seen on Wednesday attempted to raid a GHF warehouse on Tuesday, the foundation’s first day of operations.
U.N. officials claim that the mob was fired upon, resulting in close to 50 injuries. GHF disputed this claim and asserted that no one was shot or killed during the incident.
U.N. officials have expressed intense criticism of the GHF and Israel’s larger framework for aid distribution, alleging that the government is intentionally creating food scarcity to prime Palestinians for removal from the land.
“The U.N. has refused to participate in this scheme, warning that it is logistically unworkable and violates humanitarian principles by using aid as a tool in Israel’s broader efforts to depopulate areas of Gaza,” Jonathan Whittall, U.N. aid official for the occupied Palestinian territories, said Wednesday.
Israel announced the establishment of 22 new Jewish settlements in the West Bank on Thursday, further exacerbating tensions with its Western allies.
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Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claim that some of the settlements are being constructed on pre-existing outposts set up without government authorization, while others are entirely new projects.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian presidency called the Israeli expansion into Palestinian territory a “dangerous escalation” that threatens to perpetuate the “cycle of violence and instability” that has torn apart the region.
