Israel’s pressure campaign against Hamas is clearly having an effect inside the Gaza Strip. In addition to airstrikes intended to take out Hamas fighters, their tunnels, and their military supplies, they have cut off most supplies from the region. The lack of fuel is growing particularly acute, and this week the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees announced that they may soon have to suspend most operations inside the Strip. It’s not that they’re running out of supplies or volunteers willing to distribute them. They just don’t have enough gas to operate the trucks required to bring the supplies to where they are needed. And while Israel has agreed to restart some fuel supplies, they insist that they must be monitored to ensure that Hamas doesn’t divert the goods. (Associated Press)

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees warned Wednesday that without immediate deliveries of fuel it will soon have to sharply cut back relief operations across the Gaza Strip, which has been blockaded and hit by devastating Israeli airstrikes since Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel more than two weeks ago.

The warning came as hospitals in Gaza struggled to treat masses of wounded with dwindling resources, and health officials in the Hamas-ruled territory said the death toll was soaring as Israeli jets continued striking the territory overnight into Wednesday.

The Israeli military said its strikes had killed militants and destroyed tunnels, command centers, weapons storehouses and other military targets, which it has accused Hamas of hiding among Gaza’s civilian population. Gaza-based militants have been launching unrelenting rocket barrages into Israel since the conflict started.

Cutting off electricity and gasoline makes it much harder for Hamas to move its people and weapons around. But it also means that hospitals and aid centers are being cut off, opening up Israel to criticism from pro-Palestinian activists of “inhumane” actions. Of course, as we learned from one recently released hostage, Hamas has been stockpiling food, medicine, water and fuel in its tunnels for quite some time instead of distributing it to Palestinian citizens.

Perhaps even more interesting than the situation with the UN relief supply lines is the coverage of the story provided by the AP. Ever since the debacle of the fake story about Israel bombing a hospital in Gaza, the Associated Press seems to be choosing their words quite a bit more carefully. The linked article definitely seems critical of the Israeli decision to cut off fuel supplies to the region and covers the problems that a lack of fuel is causing. But as seen in the excerpt above, they balance each mention of Israeli airstrikes with a reminder that Hamas is still unleashing barrages of missiles into Israel.

Later in the article, the cite another press release from Hamas claiming that 704 people had been killed by Israel’s airstrikes in the past two days. But they immediately follow that up by saying that the AP “could not independently verify the death tolls.” Even the Biden administration seems to be learning this lesson. John Kirby is quoted later in the article saying, “The Ministry of Health is run by Hamas, and I think that all needs to be factored into anything that they put out publicly.”

I have to wonder if this isn’t all part of Israel’s larger strategy. There is certainly already suffering taking place among the Palestinian people because of the embargo, but they must have access to enough news to realize that their own Hamas leadership is bringing this on them. All of this could come to an end if the majority rose up and declared themselves to be done with Hamas and volunteered to work with Israel to turn over all of the fighters and show them where the military supplies are. But nobody seems interested in doing that thus far, so Israel will simply be forced to keep plugging along and doing this the hard way.