IDF video allegedly shows Hamas with large meals as Gazans starve
A new video released on social media by an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) spokesperson allegedly shows Hamas militants boasting about their meals in underground tunnels. It comes as the concerns of famine in Gaza continue to escalate.
Questionable video
Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee released a video and two pictures that he said shows the militants with large plates of food.
“While the movement’s leaders accuse Israel of the lie of starvation, the clips show the organization’s members boasting about their meals inside the tunnels. It should be noted that the food items seen in these clips were not included in the humanitarian aid convoys to the Gaza Strip,” Adraee said in the post translated from Arabic.
The video did not come with any kind of time stamp or date on it so it’s unclear when or where that video was actually taken.
“The idea that this video would come out at this time I find very, very suspicious,” James Gelvin, a UCLA history professor with a focus on the Middle East, told Straight Arrow News. “It very possibly is an actual video, but it’s going to refocus us from what the real story is. And we can’t be refocused from what that story is. That story is the fact that the Gazan population is starving.”
Co-founder of Human Rights Watch Aryeh Neier shared a similar sentiment.
“Even if it’s an entirely trustworthy video, it’s meaningless,” Neier told Straight Arrow News. “There are more than 2 million people in Gaza. There are at most 20,000 Hamas people, probably much fewer than that in Gaza. Twenty thousand is 1% of 2 million. So, the amount of food that can be consumed by 1% is not really relevant to the overall absence of food.”
Both Neier and Gelvin stressed that Hamas is a corrupt organization, and there’s a chance the video could be real, because it’s never soldiers who are the ones going hungry in times of war.
“Within most circumstances where there is armed conflict and there is a shortage of food, the people with guns nevertheless manage to get food and eat well,” Neier said.
“Hamas is going to be feeding its soldiers for two reasons,” Gelvin added. “Number one, it wants its soldiers to be functional. And number two, it’s losing operatives at present time. And so if a meal ticket is what it’s going to take to motivate people then they’ll undoubtedly use it.”
Both Hamas and the IDF have been accused of killing civilians trying to get food.
Starvation in Gaza
The pushback against the Israeli government for the ongoing famine issue in Gaza continues to get louder from Western nations.
The U.K., France, Canada and more than two dozen other countries issued a joint statement this week calling for an end to the war, but it may not help.
“It’s probably not going to have any impact whatsoever,” Gelvin said. “It’s the United States that’s really the country that’s got the most impact on this situation, the potential for the most impact on this situation. What France does is wonderful and so on and so forth in attempting to stave off the famine in Gaza. But really, the Israelis will listen to the United States and the United States alone.”
A U.S. envoy led by Steve Witkoff failed to negotiate a ceasefire between the two sides during a meeting in Qatar. Witkoff reportedly said the team will consider alternate options to bring the rest of the Israeli hostages home.
“The problem is that it’s not the release of the hostages. It’s not the destruction that is motivating the Israeli government,” Gelvin said. “Benjamin Netanyahu is on trial for corruption, three charges of corruption. If his government collapses, he will go to jail.”
Hearings in Netanyahu’s corruption case were postponed earlier this month.
Duality of videos
Gelvin called the video shared by the IDF spokesperson a form of propaganda and that both the IDF and Hamas continue to put out such content.
He said those are not the videos that will have the biggest impact on the world.
“The videos that we’re seeing, though, of starving Palestinian children, videos that are taken by civilians that are uploaded, videos that are taken by various organizations that are operating in Gaza or attempting to operate in Gaza, those are going to have a major impact,” Gelvin said.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
