The plight of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip has made some useful fodder for the anti-Israel crowd. Since the war against Hamas began on October 7, those opposing Israel’s retaliatory strikes against the terrorist group have used people suffering in Gaza as propaganda weapons against the Jewish state.

Yet, the facts on the ground present a reality that is much different from what the anti-Israel crowd is suggesting.

Reports from the Biden administration and senior Israeli defense officials have shed light on the food crisis in Gaza. The White House told Israeli lawmaker Benny Gantz that it plans to focus on the distribution of humanitarian aid in the war-torn area.

Critics of Israel have laid the blame for the lack of food on the nation’s continued offensive against Hamas, but Israeli authorities have added an inconvenient context to the issue.

According to Reuters, The United Nations said in February that more than a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people were “estimated to be facing catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation.” It said that without action, widespread famine could be “almost inevitable.”

“The food shortage and use of the word ‘hunger’ have been exaggerated,” a senior Israeli defense official told me on Thursday during a briefing. “There is no hunger in Gaza,” he said, explaining that most of the food that Israel has been sending into the Strip has “immediately been taken by Hamas terrorists, who then sell some of the supplies for ten times more than what it’s worth.”

The official further noted that “Every family has enough food to survive…We have been supplying them with aid as well as the US, but unfortunately, it wasn’t distributed to the citizens themselves.”

A former senior Israeli defense official who I spoke to on condition of anonymity has also said that “there is no food shortage in Gaza; there are those who are hungry since Hamas has taken all of the food and they don’t have enough money to pay Hamas on the black market.”

According to this former official, the food does not reach those who need it most since Hamas controls approximately 70-80% of the area. What happens is that Israel and foreign countries bring food and aid into Gaza. Then gangs take the supplies at gunpoint, and a significant portion of the population is left unable to afford necessities.

This information directly counteracts the narrative that Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza as part of their supposed effort to commit genocide in the area. Yet, Israeli officials stated that they have increased the number of trucks transporting supplies into Gaza by 50 percent.

Unfortunately, Hamas is preventing these supplies from reaching those who are suffering, a reality the anti-Israel crowd has conveniently ignored. The truth is that the terrorist group is continually causing and exacerbating the plight of those living under its rule. Not only did it place civilians in this position by starting the current war, it has also exploited these people as PR weapons against Israel.

Hamas is known for using Palestinian civilians as human shields, increasing fatalities among noncombatants to give the appearance that Israel is committing genocide. In many cases, they force civilians to act as shields at gunpoint, preventing them from leaving the area.

The food issue is another tactic Hamas is using to attack Israel at the expense of civilians. It is the latest in a long line of human rights abuses the terrorist group has meted out on those living in Gaza. Yet, those in America claiming to care about the Palestinians don’t seem to care about their suffering when it is Hamas who is oppressing them.