Cindy McCain denies Israel’s claim that Hamas is stealing aid: ‘People are desperate’

UN food chief warns thousands of Palestinians at risk of famine

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Cindy McCain has refuted claims from Israeli government officials insisting that Hamas was responsible for looting aid trucks allowed over the border into Gaza by the Israeli military.

McCain, wife of the late senator John McCain, heads up the United Nations World Food Programme.

In this role, the widow of one of the loudest neoconservative hawks in Washington, D.C. now finds herself advocating for more than 2 million people facing extensive food shortages in Gaza. Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza, McCain has been a steadfast voice pushing for the Israeli government to allow more aid into the beleaguered strip — and for its allies to pressure it to do so.

During her appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, McCain shot down claims that Hamas was disrupting the aid distribution process. Israeli forces killed six armed individuals affiliated with Hamas near an aid distribution point at the Kerem Shalom crossing point on Friday. Hamas officials said the individuals were guarding against looters; Israeli officials claimed the opposite.

Palestinians line up for an aid distribution site in Khan Younis (AP )

McCain told Margaret Brennan that her agency’s staffers on the ground in Gaza had seen no evidence of an effort by Hamas to loot aid trucks.

“Have you seen evidence that it is Hamas stealing the food?” Brennan asked.

“No,” McCain replied. “Not at all. Not in this round.”

"Listen, these people are desperate, and they see a World Food Programme truck coming in, and they run for it," McCain continued. "This doesn't have anything to do with Hamas or any kind of organized crime, or anything."

McCain said her organization would continue to work to get food and fresh water to Gaza in whatever capacity it was allowed to do so.

“This is a catastrophe,” she said.

The few trucks that have been let inside Gaza are “a drop in the bucket as to what's needed,” according to McCain.

“Right now, we have 500,000 people inside of Gaza that are extremely food insecure, and could be on the verge of famine if we don't help bring them back from that,” McCain said.

Trucks carrying aid are seen at the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza on its Israeli side on May 25 (REUTERS )

Israeli officials are reportedly considering a plan that would mandate a shift of non-food aid to international groups like the United Nations while food aid would be solely distributed in the Gaza Strip by a newly founded group backed by the United States.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces told Reuters that “Hamas constantly calls the looters ‘guards’ or protectors’ to mask the fact that they’re disturbing the aid process.”

Aid trucks returned to Gaza last Monday after Israel eased a blockade preventing 100 percent of aid from entering Gaza that had been in place for months.

Trucks continue to enter at a significantly lower rate than what UN experts and other organizations say is needed to avert widespread famine, though numbers differ between the Israeli government and aid groups regarding how many trucks are getting in, which some argue is evidence that most are being hijacked.

McCain appeared to argue on Sunday that the remaining trucks are not being hijacked but merely swarmed by desperate people before they can reach their intended destinations.

“Having been in a food riot myself some years ago, I understand the desperation,” she said.

Trucks regaining access to Gaza last Monday did so on the same day that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that his government had plans to “take control of all” of Gaza following the latest round of airstrikes.

“The fighting is intense, and we are making progress. We will take control of all the territory of the strip,” Netanyahu said in a video posted to his Telegram channel. “We will not give up. But in order to succeed, we must act in a way that cannot be stopped.”

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