News- Middle East: A senior official of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has rejected as “baseless” recent US claims that the group has stolen humanitarian aid in Gaza.

“The accusations are void and baseless, and they were recently refuted by a report published by Western media outlets citing an investigation by the US Agency for International Development (USAID),” Izzat al-Rishq said on Saturday.

Al-Rishq stated that Washington should stop whitewashing Israel and end its “military and political” support for the regime’s genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The US should play a “constructive role” in pressuring the Israeli regime to seriously engage in negotiations aimed at reaching an agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza and the exchange of captives, the official said.

On Friday, Reuters revealed that an internal US government review, which 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, found “no reports alleging Hamas” benefited from them.

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

Israeli military: No proof of Hamas theft of aid

The New York Times also cited two senior Israeli military officials and two other Israelis involved in the issue as saying that the Israeli military “never found proof” that Hamas had stolen aid from the United Nations.

The Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the UN aid delivery system, which Israel tried to undermine, was “relatively reliable” and “largely effective in providing food to Gaza’s desperate and hungry population.”

Israel used the narrative of the theft of aid to bypass the UN-led aid system and back the US-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

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.

‘Netanyahu real obstacle to ceasefire’

As US President Donald Trump and his special envoy Steve Witkoff have recently blamed Hamas for the stalled ceasefire talks, al-Rishq noted that the American narrative diverts attention from “the real obstacle to all agreements, which is the regime of [Israel’s prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”

He stressed that the remarks made by Trump and Witkoff "contradict the mediators' assessment of the movement's stance and do not align with the developments in the negotiation process, which was witnessing actual progress”, noting that Qatar and Egypt have appreciated “our serious and constructive stance."

The official also emphasized that Hamas has engaged in the negotiations with a high level of “national responsibility and flexibility” since the beginning of the talks, aiming for a “comprehensive agreement that stops the aggression and puts an end to the suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip.”

He emphasized that Hamas’ latest response to the current ceasefire framework included a “positive and flexible” approach to all key points.

"We just emphasized the necessity of clarity in the terms and their safeguarding, especially regarding the humanitarian aspect,” the official said, adding that the movement stressed that the agreement must ensure the protected flow of humanitarian aid through the UN and its recognized agencies without any interference by the Israeli regime.

Al-Rishq further said Hamas also called for reducing the size and depth of the Israeli-declared buffer zones within Gaza during the proposed 60-day truce, especially avoiding densely populated areas to facilitate the return of displaced people.

The Israeli regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 59,733 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

Source: Press TV