A video released earlier this week shows Hamas stealing electricity from power lines meant for civilians the IDF said.
The Times of Israel reported Sunday that Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, who serves as the coordinator of government activities in the territories (COGAT), posted the video on his Facebook page showing a group of men attaching cables to electric lines. “This electricity would provide power to hospitals and schools,” Mordechai wrote in Arabic describing the video, “but Hamas does not care about the people of Gaza and oppresses them.”
Mordechai also accused the terror organization of stealing fuel and re-selling it for profit. “How long will the Hamas terrorist movement continue to enjoy itself at Gazans’ expense?” he asked.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman last month similarly charged that Hamas doesn’t spend “even a shekel” to address Gaza’s poorly maintained infrastructure, but ensures that its leaders have electricity “24 hours a day.”
Hamas, which maintains complete political and military control over the Gaza Strip, has prioritized the building of tunnels and increasing the size of its arsenal, while most Gazans are limited to a few hours of electricity a day.
In December, it was reported that Yahye Sinwar, Hamas’s new chief in Gaza, seemed to confirm this assessment saying, “We made a mistake. We lack the ability and means to govern almost 2 million people, and in our arrogance we cast them into a state of indigence, hunger, and desperation.”
The problem of Hamas putting the building of its terror infrastructure ahead of the welfare of Gaza’s residents is not new.
The Times of Israel’s Avi Issacharoff reported in March 2016 on a scheme where Hamas enriched itself using Qatari money that was intended to build homes for Gazans. Although the homes were meant to be free, Hamas charged families $40,000 each, ostensibly to connect utilities, collecting an estimated $38 million to fund its other activities.
Palestinian affairs correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh pointed out a month earlier that Hamas has prioritized building up its terror infrastructure over rebuilding Gazan homes, writing that “the last thing Hamas cares about is the welfare of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
[Photo: Phillip Pasmanick / YouTube]