The IDF has published footage purporting to show armed Hamas militants looting a truck of humanitarian aid in Gaza amid an ongoing war of words over whether Israel is subjecting the strip to a policy of forced starvation.
Releasing the video on X on Tuesday, the Israeli military accused the terrorist organisation of ‘spreading false campaigns about a deliberate starvation campaign in Gaza’.
It comes as Israel faces widespread condemnation from the UN, international aid groups and foreign governments over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, amid an influx of photographs of emaciated Palestinian children and reports of hunger-related deaths in the war-torn enclave.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sternly refuted the claim that the Jewish state is enforcing a policy of deliberate starvation as a war tactic and insists that Gaza is not facing a starvation crisis.
In the footage released by the IDF, which they say was filmed on Friday, armed gunmen can be seen standing on top of a truck stacked with boxes as crowds of Palestinian civilians surround the vehicle.
One of the men points his gun downwards at the crowd at he stands atop the truck.
The Israeli army claims the footage shows armed Hamas operatives ‘violently looting humanitarian aid that was brought into the Gaza Strip, preventing it from reaching the civilian population’.
‘Contrary to Hamas’s false claims that these are security personnel, these are Hamas terrorists who arrived to loot the humanitarian aid from Gaza residents.
Releasing the video on X on Tuesday, the Israeli military accused the terrorist organisation of ‘spreading false campaigns about a deliberate starvation campaign in Gaza’
Displaced Palestinians gather to receive aid from a GHF aid distribution point at the so-called ‘Netzarim corridor’ in the central Gaza Strip on July 30, 2025
Internally displaced Palestinians try to grab bags of flour from an aid truck near a food distribution point in Zikim, northern Gaza Strip, 27 July 2025
Palestinians carry sacks of flour distributed from aid trucks in the coastal Zikim area of northern Gaza, as they walk away from the distribution point under harsh conditions on July 27
Humanitarian aid packages are loaded onto a C-130 Hercules military transport plane as part of missions to drop supplies into the beleaguered Gaza Stirp, on July 27, 2025
Palestinians inspect the rubble of the destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike on the Mawasi neighborhood, at a home belonging to the Nufel family in western Khan Yunis, July 28
Palestinians carry sacks of flour unloaded from a humanitarian aid convoy that reached Gaza City from the northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, July 27, 2025
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement that 470,000 people in Gaza ‘are enduring famine-like conditions’ that were leading to deaths
‘Even when aid is delivered to Gaza – Hamas loots it for its own needs, completely disregarding the residents of the Gaza Strip.’
The worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza has sparked a war of words in recent weeks, with Israel and the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) on one side facing mounting condemnation from the international community over claims of starvation in the strip.
It comes after Israel announced it would begin 10-hour ‘tactical pauses’ in its military operations in three densely-populated areas of Gaza on Monday until further notice to allow aid corridors for UN convoys.
The pauses came after Israel resumed airdrops of humanitarian supplies into the strip after building pressure – airdrops which the IDF say include ‘seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar and canned food to be provided by international organisations’.
On the first day of the partial pause in military operations in Muwasi, Deir al Balah and Gaza City, Israel said more than 120 truckloads of food aid had been distributed by the UN and other aid agencies.
But pressure to increase the flow of aid into the strip continues to fall on the Jewish state after the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement that 470,000 people in Gaza ‘are enduring famine-like conditions’ that were leading to deaths.
Last week, more than 100 international aid organisations including Save the Children and Oxfam released a statement warning of mass starvation in Gaza.
‘With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes,’ the statement said.
Palestinians carry sacks of flour distributed from aid trucks in the coastal Zikim area of northern Gaza, as they walk away from the distribution point under harsh conditions on July 27
Amid continued Israeli attacks and a crippling blockade, residents of Gaza are left with scarce access to food and basic supplies (Gaza City pictured)
A boy strokes the neck of a donkey as they stand amidst rubble following overnight Israeli bombardment in southern Gaza, on July 28, 2025
A military transport aircraft drops humanitarian aid over Al-Zawayda, in the central Gaza Strip, on July 28
Newborns are treated in neonatal units are experiencing skin rashes and irritation as a result of excessive heat and inadequate climate control (July 28)
In the wake of renewed airdrops of aid, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said there had been ‘progress’
Meanwhile, the UK and 27 other countries called for an immediate end to the war, saying the suffering of civilians had ‘reached new depths’.
In the wake of renewed airdrops of aid, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said there had been ‘progress’, but warned vast amounts of supplies were still needed to ‘stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis’.
On Tuesday, the leading international authority on food crises, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), said in a new alert that the ‘worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip’, predicting ‘widespread death’ without immediate action.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there were 74 malnutrition-related deaths in 2025 in the strip, 63 of which occurred in July – including 24 children under five.
The UN has alleged that as many as 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access the aid distributed from US-backed GHF centres in the strip.
The IDF has disputed this figure, but has not provided its own estimate and has acknowledged that its troops have opened fire while deployed at the centres.
Israel has consistently blamed the UN for failing to adequately distribute aid in the territory and has accused armed Hamas operatives of looting the supply.
The UN has denied this allegation, alleging that Israel has rejected a large proportion of its aid collection and distribution requests, and that its ongoing military operations in Gaza have impeded the UN’s ability to deliver aid inside the enclave.