Hamas hijacks several humanitarian trucks in Gaza

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller confirmed that the Hamas terrorist group hijacked several humanitarian aid trucks sent from Jordan to Gaza. For the incident, Israeli authorities arrested three people.

"And I will tell you we were glad to hear that Israel yesterday arrested three of the people involved in the attacks on this convoy. That is the appropriate step. That’s the step that they ought to take whenever there are attacks on aid convoys, and that furthermore they ought to prevent these attacks from happening in the first place," Miller said in a State Department press briefing.

"That’s what we will hope they’ll do because these are aid shipments that are being delivered to innocent civilians who had nothing to do with Oct. 7 and they ought to continue unimpeded," the spokesperson added.

Miller explained that humanitarian aid arrived from Jordan to the Erez crossing, which has just opened. "The convoys from the Jordan military that brought the aid in unloaded the aid inside Gaza. It was then picked up by a humanitarian implementer for distribution inside Gaza, and that aid was intercepted and diverted by Hamas on the ground in Gaza."

'An unacceptable act'

Likewise, the spokesperson explained that the United Nations (U.N.) has recovered part of the humanitarian aid. He insisted that this attack was "unacceptable."

"The U.N. is either in the process or has by now recovered that aid, but it was an unacceptable act by Hamas to divert this aid to begin with, to seize this aid. We have made clear that it’s an unacceptable act. I think the U.N. partners will be also making clear that it’s an unacceptable act. If there is one thing that Hamas could do to jeopardize the shipment of aid, it would be diverting it for their own use rather than allowing it to go to the innocent civilians that need it, so they certainly should refrain from doing that in the future," he stressed. Miller.