Jerusalem, 23 July, 2025 (TPS-IL) — The Israel Defense Forces released new footage on Wednesday showing Hamas operatives in Gaza tunnels enjoying fresh fruit and meals, even as the terror group claims there is widespread hunger in the Strip.
“This is how the organization’s terrorists behave underground, far from the suffering of the population and contrary to the lie of starvation,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, tweeted.
“While the movement’s leaders accuse Israel of the lie of starvation, the clips show the organization’s members boasting about their meals inside the tunnels. It should be noted that the food items seen in these clips were not included in the humanitarian aid convoys to the Gaza Strip,” Adraee stressed. “Once again, the blatant disregard of Hamas saboteurs for the suffering of the population is evident. This organization, which promotes lies to the world about alleged starvation, mocks the destruction it has inflicted on the sector’s residents.”
Adraee did not indicate when the footage was taken or how it was obtained.
#خاص مشاهد حصرية من أنفاق حماس: هكذا يتصرف إرهابيو التنظيم تحت الأرض بعيدًا عن معاناة السكان وخلافًا لكذبة التجويع
ينشر جيش الدفاع مشاهد تكشف نمط حياة عناصر حماس داخل الأنفاق خلال الحرب.
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) July 23, 2025
On Tuesday, Israel blamed the international community for not distributing humanitarian aid, which has been accumulating at two Gaza border crossings.
“As of now, the contents of approximately 950 humanitarian aid trucks are awaiting collection on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings. These trucks are just waiting there,” said the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a military unit that coordinates civilian issues in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. “The collection bottleneck remains the main obstacle to maintaining a consistent flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, despite Israel’s proactive efforts to expand the volume of aid trucks entering the area.”
Also on Tuesday, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Executive Chairman Reverend Johnnie Moore urged the United Nations to increase collaboration to deliver aid.
“Despite the extraordinary volume of aid inside Gaza, the vast majority of it remains warehoused, undelivered, or looted. The result is millions of civilians without consistent access to food aid,” Moore wrote in a letter to the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher.
“UN agencies continue to assert that a lack of permissions and security is impeding aid delivery. However, the reality on the ground tells a different story. More than 400 aid distribution points run by the UN and its partners remain closed. Kitchens have shuttered, trucks sit idle, drivers are striking, and convoys are routinely looted. This is not an access issue. It is a capacity and operational issue, and the world deserves honesty about that distinction,” Moore added.
The Press Service of Israel reported in November that Hamas and criminal gangs associated with it hijacked 85% of all the trucks entering the Strip with food, water, medicine and other humanitarian items. TPS-IL learned that Hamas granted distribution lines to these groups to ensure that humanitarian aid exclusively reaches Hamas. In return, these gangs receive money, food and vouchers. Hamas also pays these gangs $10,000 a month to maintain checkpoints.
The Israeli government halted the entry of humanitarian aid in early March. According to the IDF, this move sharply curtailed Hamas’s revenue stream, with some gunmen and operatives not receiving salaries.
Hamas has been firing on Palestinians making their way to distribution centers, and residents of the Strip accuse the terror group of violence to deliberately disrupt the aid.
At least 1,180 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 50 remaining hostages, around 30 are believed to be dead.
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