Netta Barak-Corren: How humanitarian aid feeds war machines

Gaza presents the longest-running case of diverted aid. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency, with a $2.48 billion annual budget in 2024 and 13,000 local staff, effectively provides most public services in Gaza. That frees Hamas to use its resources for tunnels and rockets. In regions under its control, it taxes incoming aid and places loyalists on the payroll. A donor freeze after evidence that Unrwa personnel joined the Oct. 7, 2023, attack lasted only months; services resumed with no vetting reforms because, donors said, “there is no alternative…