Hamas is accused by Palestinians of stealing vital aid

A FEARLESS elderly woman in Gaza has spoken out bravely against Hamas, accusing the terror group of stealing food and vital aid from desperate families.

Footage showed her wagging her finger at a TV news reporter as she claimed that ‘all aid goes down underground’ to tunnel networks used by Hamas.

Last night, other Palestinians also spoke out to claim Hamas had looted their homes and lured Israeli bombing raids on to civilian areas.

Israel’s military said it was fighting ‘house to house’ and had conducted lightning raids to try to free dozens of Israeli hostages.

The elderly woman in a headscarf was filmed berating an Al Jazeera reporter who suggested international aid was not reaching her due to the ‘difficult’ situation.

She told him: ‘All aid goes down underground. The aid does not reach the nation and the entire people. A lot is coming. What comes is only a little and it is distributed – so they say.’

As the reporter again suggested the situation was ‘difficult’, the

‘We only get aid if we chase Hamas and beg’

woman shook her finger in front of a shocked crowd of Palestinians and said: ‘Everything goes to their houses. They take it, they will even shoot me and do whatever they want to me, Hamas.’

In separate footage, a young Palestinian mother also accused Hamas of stealing aid. Cradling her baby, she told a reporter she wanted her message to ‘reach all countries of the world’.

She added: ‘You send us humanitarian aid but I swear to God that we get nothing. Only if we chase them and beg. They mock us when we ask. They humiliate us.’

She said Hamas ‘take advantage of us’, adding: ‘May God take revenge on them.’

Last night, a father-of-two in Gaza told The Mail on Sunday that ordinary people wanted Hamas to fall.

‘This is the shared dream of Gaza,’ he said, on condition of anonymity, as part of a press call by The Centre for Peace Communications.

Despite living under constant Israeli bombardment, he said: ‘We are afraid most of Hamas.’

He said Hamas was monitoring social media for dissent, adding: ‘I heard they have taken people and executed them. They will accuse any person of being an agent and they are disappeared.’

He said his brother was murdered by Hamas when it seized power in 2007 and rounded up political opponents. He added his neighbourhood was ransacked by Hamas looters at the outbreak of this war on October 7, when the terrorists killed more than 1,200 civilians and took 240 men, women and children hostage.

‘My house and the whole neighbourhood was completely cleared out,’ he said. He claimed Hamas fighters were ‘hiding among the people’ and placing terrorists on the roofs of hospitals and schools, adding: ‘It’s just like telling Israel, “Come and bomb this place”.’

On Friday night, the United States blocked a resolution at the UN Security Council calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. Britain abstained from the vote because the UN resolution failed to condemn Hamas as terrorists.

In a seven-day ceasefire last month, Hamas released 105 hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Carl Skau, deputy director of the UN World Food Programme, said half the population of Gaza was ‘starving’. Israeli Lt Col Richard Hecht said it was doing ‘everything it could’ to get aid into Gaza.

It came as it was revealed that Hamas tortured and executed an Israeli hostage after a rescue mission to save him was foiled.

The terrorists released a video showing the mutilated body of Sa’ar Baruch, 25, after special forces failed to free him on Thursday.

Mr Baruch was kidnapped from Be’eri kibbutz on October 7 while his brother Idan, 20, was shot dead after militants torched their home.

Israel said two soldiers were ‘severely injured’ in the mission but ‘numerous terrorists’ died.