News - Middle East: An analysis by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has found no evidence that the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has stolen humanitarian aid, directly contradicting claims by the United States and Israel. These claims had been used to justify the establishment of militarized aid distribution centers in the Gaza Strip.

The internal US government review revealed on Friday by Reuters was conducted by the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) of USAID.

It was completed in late June and examined 156 incidents of theft or loss of US-funded supplies filed by UN agencies and other humanitarian groups working in Gaza between October 2023 and May this year.

The analysis found “no reports alleging Hamas” benefited from US-funded supplies.

Instead at least 44 of the reported incidents were “either directly or indirectly” caused by Israeli military actions.

The findings were shared with the inspector general's office of the USAID and State Department officials overseeing West Asia policies, according to two sources familiar with the issue.

The findings come as people in Gaza are starving, amid Israel’s complete aid blockade.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) said that a quarter of Gaza's 2.1 million population faces famine-like conditions.

Gaza’s Government Media Office reported that at least 115 Palestinians died from starvation and malnutrition.

On Tuesday, the UN human rights office said Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinian aid seekers in Gaza since May, mostly near sites run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

This scheme, which bypasses the UN-led aid system, has emerged after Israel has long been accused of using food as a weapon of war against the Palestinians in the besieged strip.

Nearly 170 non-governmental organizations have called for the immediate discontinuation of the controversial GHF program, and called for a return to the UN-led aid mechanism that existed in the war-torn territory until March, when the Israeli regime imposed a full blockade on humanitarian assistance entering Gaza.

Israel launched the genocidal campaign in Gaza on October 7, 2023. It has killed at least 59,587 Palestinians there so far, mostly women and children.

Source: Press TV