Hamas Steals Fuel from Gaza Hospitals, Hoards Vast Stockpile for Terrorism

A Wednesday NBC News exposé revealed Hamas is stockpiling vast amounts of fuel for its paramilitary activities, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed a recorded phone conversation in which Hamas operatives discussed stealing fuel from civilians and storing it beneath a hospital.

NBC News revealed Hamas has a stockpile of more than 200,000 gallons of fuel, which it uses to provide air and power to its terror tunnel network and fuel the rockets it launches against civilian targets in Israel — a blatant and constant war crime that never seems to be mentioned by critics of the Israeli operation in Gaza.

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NBC noted Hamas has “repeatedly demanded fuel deliveries to Gaza during negotiations to allow foreign nationals to leave the enclave and in talks about the release of 240 people it kidnapped” without mentioning its massive stockpiles.

The intel on Hamas fuel depots came from a combination of “U.S. officials, current and former Israeli officials and academics.”

The report should be no surprise to longtime observers of Gaza. On October 24, when the controversial U.N. Agency for Palestinian Relief (UNRWA) complained it was running out of fuel, the IDF sarcastically suggested it should “ask Hamas if you can have some” of the 500,000 liters it has stashed in both hidden and obvious fuel tanks around Gaza.

“Petrol will not enter Gaza. Hamas takes the petrol for its military infrastructure,” an Israeli military spokesman said at the time.

The IDF on Friday released a recorded conversation in which a Gaza medical official confirmed Hamas is stealing fuel intended for civilians and keeping it in a secret stash beneath the Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, where it would be safe from Israeli airstrikes. The medical official was essentially begging Hamas to let him keep some of the diesel fuel shipped to the hospital.

IDF: Phone Call with Gaza Energy Official on Hamas Hoarding Fuel

Israel Defense Force

The other party on the recorded call, a Hamas terrorist brigade commander, contemptuously joked about giving the Shifa hospital — and other medical facilities Hamas is using as cover for its military fuel dumps — only a few drops of the petrol hoard, which he said was far larger than outside observers suspect. The Hamas commander said his forces are entitled to seize the fuel because they are “working as a government for the sake of the country.”

“The call confirms that Hamas controls the energy and fuel resources in the Gaza Strip and chooses to direct them for terrorism. Moreover, if fuel is allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, Hamas plans to seize those resources,” the IDF said in a statement on Friday.

Hamas Caught on Phone Call Admitting Stealing Fuel from Hospitals

Israel Defense Forces

Shifa Hospital officials said on Thursday they have only enough fuel to run the neonatal intensive-care unit. Power has been switched off in the rest of the facility. “The fuel situation is very dangerous. If we don’t have any more fuel by the evening hours, we are going to lose our neonatal units.”

Israel’s Ynet News noted that Shin Bet, the Israeli intelligence service, released a video of the interrogation of a captured Hamas terrorist who confirmed his organization is hiding fuel and weapons underneath hospitals. He specifically mentioned Shifa as one of the hospitals concealing a Hamas fuel and ammo dump.

“Shifa is not small, it is a big place that can be used to hide things,” the captured Hamas operative said. He told his Israeli interrogators that hospitals made great hiding places because “you won’t strike them.”

The Hamas man appeared irritated at his comrades for refueling their fleet of vehicles from “full containers” while leaving the civilians of Gaza with nothing.

“Hamas has its own supply stockpile of fuel. If it cared a whit about the people of Gaza, it would make sure itself that it used that fuel to have the hospitals be able to operate the incubators, stay turned on, etc. But, of course, it doesn’t,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.

Blinken made this statement while telling the Senate he could not guarantee Hamas would not seize some of the humanitarian aid shipments intended for Palestinian civilians, although he claimed he had seen no documented reports of theft as of Tuesday.