First aid cargo that entered Gaza through the restored Erez gate was seized by Hamas, according to the US.

Timmy Mabs | 3rd May, 2024.

Workers unload a truck in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip of humanitarian aid delivered from Jordan to the coastal territory through the Erez border crossing with Israel, on May 1, 2024. (Photo credit: Jack Guez/AFP)

According to the State Department, the UN is "in the process or has recovered" the humanitarian aid that the terrorist organization stole, marking the "first widespread case of diversion" that the US has acknowledged.

According to US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Thursday, Hamas was able to capture a significant consignment of humanitarian aid that was brought to Gaza from Jordan earlier this week. The supplies were the first to be sent to the enclave via a recently reopened Israeli border crossing.

Just before it left the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization's headquarters in Amman on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken saw the aid. It was headed for the newly renovated Erez crossing into Gaza, which Hamas largely destroyed during its terror attack on October 7 that ignited the ongoing conflict.

The reopening of Erez, Israel’s sole crossing on the northern edge of Gaza, had been a main pleas of international aid agencies for months, to alleviate the humanitarian situation which is believed to be most severe among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the north of the enclave.

“The UN is either in the process or has by now recovered that aid, but it was an unacceptable act by Hamas to divert this aid to begin with,” Miller said during a press briefing.

He added that UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, would likely issue a statement soon condemning the incident, indicating it was the organization from which Hamas stole the aid.

He said that this was the "first widespread case of diversion that we have seen" in Gaza and that "if there's one thing that Hamas could do to jeopardize the shipment of aid, it would be diverting it for their own use, rather than allowing it to go to the innocent civilians that need it."

Miller claimed that Hamas detained the relief vehicles for "some time" before releasing them.

His comments follow Israel’s long-standing contention that Hamas stockpiled supplies and kept them from increasingly desperate civilians. Footage from Gaza has shown gunmen, who were reportedly linked to the terror group, stealing trucks delivering humanitarian aid from Egypt.

In February, the US diplomat who was then involved in humanitarian assistance for Gaza denied allegations that Hamas stole aid and commercial shipments into the enclave, saying that no Israeli official had presented him or the Biden administration with “specific evidence of diversion or theft of assistance.”

At the same time, he acknowledged that Hamas had used other aid delivery channels to “shape where and to whom assistance goes.”

Blinken denounced the Israeli demonstrators' "unacceptable" attack on the relief convoy traveling from Jordan to Gaza, where it was being transferred.

The right-wing group Tzav 9, which is against sending aid to Gaza while hostages are still being held there, planned a protest outside the Allenby Crossing between Israel and Jordan late on Tuesday night in an attempt to stop the convoy. Social media posts featured pictures of the hostages and Israeli flags being held by some protesters, while other images had young ladies squatting in front of a truck on the road.

Videos appeared to show the activists throwing flour bags onto the street.

According to what I've been told, Israeli officials detained the attackers of this caravan today. That conveys a really powerful message, he said in an interview with NBC Nightly News.

The Israeli government must “continue to send a strong message that this aid cannot be, must not be interfered with as it goes through Israel… Israel is better than this,” he added while noting that the atrocities committed against Israel on October 7 and Hamas’s continued holding of hostages since.

“The people who so desperately need this aid and who are now getting more of it because of the important steps that [Israel has] taken in recent weeks — including right here at Ashdod port — have nothing to do with October 7, nothing to do with the hostages,” Blinken said.

He said, "They've been caught in this Hamas-made crossfire, and it's imperative that they get the food, water, and medical supplies they need, as well as access to hospitals and health care."

In retaliation for the Palestinian terror group's horrific attack on Israel on October 7, Israel launched a military campaign against Hamas that has destroyed the Gaza Strip and thrust its 2.3 million residents into a humanitarian crisis.

Israel has increased its attempts to distribute aid by land and has created new ground routes, such as opening Erez to relief vehicles on Wednesday. Although aid distribution has greatly risen in recent weeks, Washington claims that more is still required.