Hamas Continues Paying Government Salaries Through Exploiting Aid and Price Gouging

Latest Developments

Hamas Paying Government Salaries: Despite being severely weakened by nearly two years of war, the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group continues to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of civil servants in the Gaza Strip. According to an August 7 BBC report, the group has maintained a secret cash-based payment system that distributes over $7 million in salaries to some 30,000 civil servants. Israel has targeted Hamas salary distributors throughout the war in Gaza in an attempt to decentralize the terrorist group’s financial system, leading salary distributors to set up secret meetings through encrypted messages at which payments are made to employees.
Gouging Prices for Salaries: Sources in Gaza told the BBC that Hamas has been able to continue the payment in wartime by levying taxes on traders, inflating the cost of some goods up to 100 times their original price. Hamas has also been distributing stolen aid to the families of its members and supporters, excluding the wider population. “When the hunger worsened, my children were crying not only from pain but also from watching our Hamas-affiliated neighbors receive food parcels and sacks of flour,” Nisreen Khaled, a widow caring for three children, told the BBC. Other sources of funding include more than $700 million in cash stockpiled by the terrorist group in advance of its October 7, 2023, atrocities in Israel.
IDF Uncovers Missile Launcher Hidden in Cemetery: The IDF announced on August 7 that troops from the 401st Brigade were operating in the Daraj Tuffah district in northern Gaza. The soldiers uncovered missile launchers, pistols, and ammunition in the area, along with a missile launcher and launch canister hidden in a cemetery. Additionally, in coordination with the Yahalom special forces combat engineering unit, the troops dismantled an underground terror tunnel approximately one kilometer long, eliminating dozens of terrorists during the operation.

FDD Expert Response

“One of the reasons Hamas continues to operate in Gaza is its ability to maintain a steady revenue stream. Whether it is through taxes, donations, or exploitation of humanitarian aid, Hamas will have the resources it needs to continue functioning as an organization. This underscores a mistake by Israel: disrupting Hamas’s financial infrastructure should have been a top priority from the very beginning of the war. While steps have been taken to target Hamas’s funding channels and those connected to it, they don’t compare to the more effective financial warfare Israel waged against Hezbollah last year.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst and Editor at FDD’s Long War Journal

“Perhaps the BBC’s exposé will force the United Nations to reckon with the fact that its aid delivery system is failing and that goods from the trucks that it dispatches to Gaza are being selectively handed out to Hamas members and supporters to increase the survivability of the terrorist group.” — Aaron Goren, Research Analyst and Editor

“It’s no surprise that Hamas is inflating prices to fund salaries and provide aid to its employees. This terrorist organization has never prioritized the well-being of ordinary Gazans. Instead, it has exploited their suffering to manipulate international opinion and media coverage. Hamas has plunged the coastal enclave into a destructive and devastating war and is now capitalizing on the chaos to ensure its own personal survival.” — Ahmad Sharawi, Research Analyst