Shortage in markets - and high tax on every aid truck: Hamas plans new "starvation campaign"

According to Israeli assessments, Hamas is preparing a new international campaign to portray a state of famine in Gaza, exploiting shortages created in markets due to high taxes it imposed on merchants. The organization needs about 90 million shekels monthly to pay salaries to some 30,000 operatives, and levies up to 10,000 shekels per aid truck. Israeli officials clarify that the current level of aid fully meets the population's needs.

According to assessments in the Israeli security establishment, Hamas is preparing a new international campaign to portray a state of famine in the Gaza Strip, exploiting shortages created in markets due to high taxes the organization imposed on Gaza merchants. The organization needs about 90 million shekels monthly to pay salaries to its approximately 30,000 operatives, including clerks, "low-level" militants, and members of the military wing, with each operative receiving an average of about 3,000 shekels. To raise these funds, Hamas imposes high taxes on merchants, including those who receive goods from outside the Strip on aid trucks, who are required to pay up to 10,000 shekels per truck, in addition to a demand to transfer 30% of the sales value of the truck's contents in cash. As a result, many merchants decided not to collect the trucks to avoid payment, leading to price increases in markets and shortages. Hamas plans to relaunch the "starvation campaign" it ran in the summer of 2025, aiming to exert political pressure on Israel and halt the progress of the Trump administration's "Points Plan" and the process of demilitarizing the Strip and disarming Hamas. Security sources in Israel clarify that Gaza is not in a state of famine, and that the volume of about 250 aid trucks per day fully meets the population's needs under controls that prevent goods from reaching Hamas.