Amid the international calls for Israel to pause its military operation against Hamas to allow for humanitarian aid — including fuel — to flow into Gaza comes a report that Hamas has stockpiled an estimated 200,000 gallons of fuel for its rockets that it fires into Israel and to sustain its underground tunnel system.
According to the NBC News report, Hamas has amassed fuel through its demands to hold talks about hostages and, according to Israel, from stealing it from the Gazan hospitals that are running low on it. It's those hospitals, for one, that the international community wants to supply with more fuel that will ostensibly wind up in Hamas' stockpiles.
The Biden administration has now joined the calls for Israel to pause, and that has drawn the ire of congressional Republicans.
"Biden is now secretly pressuring Israel to allow fuel into Gaza. Hamas has huge reserves of fuel that it could use for civilians, but instead stockpiles for its rockets and terror tunnels," Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., posted to X.
"Biden literally wants to fuel Hamas's war machine. Israel should flatly reject this outrageous pressure campaign, confident that the Congress will have its back," Cotton added.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called it "obscene."
"Biden poured hundreds of millions of dollars toward Hamas, which then massacred 1,400 Israelis and dozens of Americans. Now he's pressuring Israel to stand down so Hamas can regroup. He's even pressuring Israel to send more fuel to the Gaza Strip, which Hamas will seize and use to attack Israel," Cruz posted to X.
While the Israeli military estimates Hamas is sitting on 200,000 gallons, one scholar said it's hard to know for sure.
"We don't know how much they have, and we definitely don't know how much they need, because no one is sure to what extent this underground city goes," Elai Rettig, an assistant professor of political studies at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, told NBC News.
But what is certain, as far as Israel Defense Forces is concerned, is how the terrorists are getting it.
IDF released intercepted audio Wednesday of a conversation between a Hamas commander and two others at Indonesia Hospital in north Gaza that it says is proof that Hamas is taking gas from Gazan hospitals.
The Biden administration knows Hamas is hoarding fuel — Blinken testified about it earlier this week — but will urge Israel on Friday to pause for aid that would include more fuel anyway.
"Hamas has its own supply stockpile of fuel," Blinken told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. "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."
"We are working on a mechanism that can give fuel to where it's needed, particularly if it's just hospitals, bakeries [and] desalination plants," Blinken told the panel.
Eyal Hulata, Israel's former national security adviser, told NBC News that Israel isn't blocking aid into Gaza — it's blocking fuel that "Hamas needs to fight Israel."
"There is no surprise that Hamas wants the fuel," Hulata told NBC News. "Hamas is interested in the resources to provide electricity in the tunnels and to fight Israel."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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