Hamas is quietly disbursing salaries to tens of thousands of operatives using clandestine, cash-based methods while systematically looting humanitarian aid bound for Gaza’s civilian population, according to a BBC investigation published Wednesday.

The report confirms long-standing Israeli allegations that the terror group has hijacked the flow of international assistance, distributing life-saving supplies to its loyalists and black-market networks while desperate families face hunger and disease.

Despite a total economic collapse in the Gaza Strip, the BBC found that Hamas continues to pay approximately 30,000 so-called “civil servants,” issuing partial salaries every ten weeks—often just 20% of prewar pay. Three Hamas-linked employees said they had recently received NIS 1,000 (about $300) through secretive channels.

The BBC cited a senior Hamas figure who claimed the organization had stockpiled an astonishing $700 million in hard cash inside its underground tunnel network ahead of the October 7 massacre, enabling it to survive financially even under sustained Israeli bombardment.

To evade Israeli intelligence, Hamas operatives receive coded messages via encrypted phone apps—often simple invitations for “tea.” At the designated place, a courier brushes past, slipping cash into their hands before disappearing. The method is fraught with danger: Israeli forces have targeted several such distribution points. One man told the BBC he narrowly survived a deadly airstrike during a payout.

But the covert salary system is just one part of a far more damning narrative.

The investigation bolsters Israeli claims that Hamas is plundering massive quantities of international aid. Cigarette packs are being sold at 100 times their prewar price, and local traders are reportedly being taxed by the terror group desperate bid to raise funds.

Anonymous sources in Gaza told the BBC that much of the aid is either handed out exclusively to Hamas supporters or redirected for sale on the black market. “Significant quantities” of aid were seized by Hamas during a two-month window earlier this year when Israel increased deliveries as part of a hostage release agreement.

Despite Hamas and United Nations officials repeatedly denying such claims, the UN itself recently disclosed that 88% of aid trucks have been looted before reaching their intended destinations in Gaza.

As food and medicine remain scarce, public anger toward Hamas is reportedly rising. “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,” said Nisreen Khaled, a single mother in Gaza. “Are they not the reason for our suffering?”

Frustration is also boiling over among Hamas employees themselves. The meager cash they do receive is frequently unusable—old, degraded bills that no one wants to accept.

A separate Wall Street Journal investigation earlier this year similarly concluded that humanitarian aid has become a critical funding source for Hamas, as Israeli offensives cripple traditional revenue streams and foreign support dries up.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)