INTERNACIONAL
UN cash app for Gazans exploited by Hamas as terror group steals aid money meant for civilians
Protesters in Gaza target Hamas
For the first time since Hamas seized power 18 years ago, Gazans are speaking out against Hamas at great personal risk, Fox News’ Mike Tobin reports.
United Nations agencies’ monthly cash transfers to Gaza residents are inadvertently strengthening the Hamas terrorist organization, as the group and affiliated traders continue to control the money flow to the enclave, an expert on Hamas’ financial and economic operations said.
«Hamas exploits its role as the de facto ruler of Gaza to extract financial gains from aid money sent by U.N. organizations to civilians via apps still operating in the region,» Eyal Ofer told Fox News Digital.
«The aid system is being manipulated by Hamas and affiliated traders. Hamas does this largely behind the scenes, leveraging their control over large merchants, crime families, and using cash to establish a shadow banking system within Gaza.»
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Gazans at a bazaar set up to meet their basic needs amidst the rubble in the heavily damaged Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on the 3rd day of Ramadan, after Israel halted humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, on March 3, 2025. (Mahmoud Issa/Anadolu via Getty Images))
Each month, international organizations send significant sums into Gaza’s economy. The U.N.’s World Food Programme (WFP) transfers approximately $18.43 million, reaching 82,636 families, with each family receiving an average of $209, according to open-source data. UNICEF’s monthly assistance averages $5 million, helping to reach at least 20,000 families every month.
«I go to the market and meet people whose job is to provide cash in exchange for a fee,» Gaza resident Shahab Yousef told Israel’s news agency TPS-IL. «The fee is 20–30%. If I transfer 1,000 shekels [$271] I get back 700 [$190],» he said. «For big purchases, I pay digitally. But at the market, I need cash, and I lose 30 percent every time.»
Another Gaza resident, Nidal Qawasmeh, expressed similar frustration to TPS-IL. «These people are charging 30 percent just to give you cash. I just want to take care of my family, but everything costs me more because of this. Prices are insane.»
The specific amount received per family every month is around $270 (or 1,000 New Israeli Shekels), which was calculated as 80% of the Survival Minimum Expenditure Basket, UNICEF told Fox News Digital. Smaller organizations like UNFPA and others also contribute, bringing the total to about $39.66 million per month, reaching 60% of Gaza’s households, according to open-source data.
A man holds a wad of Israeli shekels in Gaza. (Majdi Fathi/TPS)
Despite the scale of direct financial aid, which reaches over half of the enclave’s population, Gaza’s severe food insecurity and high inflation (91% and 118%, respectively, as of January 2024) underscore its importance. However, the way this money circulates within Gaza is far more complex. «Hamas controls much of the cash that enters Gaza through various channels,» Ofer told Fox News Digital, «People who receive money via mobile apps must convert it into cash to use in local markets, but this involves hefty fees, with many money changers tied to Hamas or its allies.»
TPS-IL reported that Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar recently warned that Hamas’s economic strength in Gaza relies on billions of shekels in cash, paid as salaries and quickly reclaimed through taxes on merchants. In a letter to Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Amir Yaron, Sa’ar urged the cancelation of the circulation of 200-shekel bills previously introduced into Gaza, saying that experts believe the move would severely damage Hamas’s financial network. The Bank of Israel rejected the proposal, citing technical reasons and claiming that implementation was not feasible.
Ofer’s research found that the fees can range from 20% to 35%, meaning recipients lose a significant portion of their aid just to access it. «In videos from Gaza, you can see traders refusing to accept app funds and forcing customers to convert them into cash, knowing they will lose at least 20% in the process,» he said.
Peter Gallo, an international lawyer and former Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) investigator at the U.N., told Fox News Digital, «If an investigator in Israel can figure it out, the aid agencies either knew or should have known. Twenty to thirty percent is just ridiculous. That’s extortion. It’s what some have politely described as a ‘revolutionary tax.’ In fairness, the aid agencies might argue they had no alternative, It is the cost of doing business, but it would have been better if they were honest about it from the start.»
HAMAS TERROR GROUP REPORTEDLY BUCKLING UNDER FINANCIAL STRAIN AMID ISRAELI MILITARY GAINS AND GROWING UNREST
Palestinians shop for food and clothes at the local bazaar as daily life continues in the shadow of war in Jabalia, Gaza, on January 15, 2024. (Photo by Mahmoud Shalha/Anadolu via Getty Images) (Photo by Mahmoud Shalha/Anadolu via Getty Images)
A spokesperson for UNICEF told Fox News Digital, «UNICEF is aware of the cash liquidity crisis in Gaza and the continuous shortage of hard cash, which is a direct consequence of the banking system’s inability to function amid the ongoing conflict.
«Since May 2024, UNICEF has introduced fully digital cash payments via e-wallets, which do not require hard cash at any point. By using e-wallets, recipients of humanitarian digital cash transfers can purchase goods such as food, hygiene items and medicine without ever handling physical money,» the spokesperson said.
«The use of digital e-wallets can be accessed through an app and works on the most basic smartphones. When implemented, these digital cash payments via e-wallets eliminate the need for cash conversion and, consequently, the payment of any fees. The UNICEF humanitarian digital cash program adheres to the highest standards of neutrality and impartiality. No external party, actor, or agency—not even the beneficiaries themselves—has any role or influence in the design or implementation of the program, including the composition of the beneficiary list, payment schedule, frequency and amounts.»
World Food Programme (WFP) aid at the Erez west crossing on the Israel-Gaza border. (IDF spokesman)
The spokesperson claimed: «More than 1.8 million people—close to the entire population of Gaza—are grappling with extreme food insecurity, with at least half of them being children. . . . Acute malnutrition among children is rising at alarming rates. The UNICEF humanitarian cash transfer program is, simply put, keeping children alive in the midst of a war not of their making by providing them with access to essential items for their survival. UNICEF’s monthly budget for humanitarian cash transfers in Gaza averages USD 5 million to support approximately 20,000 families. We estimate that these parameters are too small to significantly impact the local economy.»
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The World Food Programme didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
«Turning a blind eye is not acceptable. The U.N. Security Council has been addressing terrorist financing since 2001, yet aid agencies continue to ignore the fact that Hamas is making a profit off this money flow, despite international efforts to stop terrorist financing,» Gallo said.
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The massive power outage that wreaked havoc in Europe is being blamed on a pair of likely solar plant breakdowns in southwest Spain, a report said.
By 7 a.m. local time Tuesday, more than 99% of energy demand in Spain had been restored, the country’s electricity operator Red Eléctrica announced. Portuguese grid operator REN said on Tuesday morning that all the 89 power substations had been back online since late last night and power had been restored to all 6.4 million customers.
Red Eléctrica said it identified two power generation loss incidents in southwest Spain – likely involving solar plants – that caused instability in the Spanish power grid and contributed to a breakdown of its interconnection to France, according to Reuters.
The economic cost of Monday’s blackout across the Iberian Peninsula could range between $2.5 billion to more than $5 billion, it cited investment bank RBC as saying.
POWER RESTORED TO HALF OF SPAIN AS TRAVEL DECIMATED
A car drives down an unlit street in Lisbon, Portugal, during a nationwide power outage on Monday, April 28. (AP/Armando Franca)
«We have never had a complete collapse of the system,» Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised address Monday night.
Emergency workers in Spain said they had rescued some 35,000 passengers on Monday who were stranded along railways and in underground tunnels.
Video that aired on Spanish television showed people evacuating metro stations in Madrid, and empty stations with trains stopped in Barcelona. Spain’s parliament was also left in the dark, public broadcaster RTVE reported.
The ATP Tour said play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended for the day due to the power outage.
In Portugal, several Lisbon subway cars were evacuated, courts stopped working and ATMs and electronic payment systems were affected. Traffic lights in Lisbon also stopped working during the outage.
REN, Portugal’s grid operator, described the incident Monday as a «rare atmospheric phenomenon.»
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People wait on a platform as metro operations resume partially in Madrid, Spain, on Tuesday, April 29, following the nationwide power outage. (Reuters/Violeta Santos Moura)
«Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high-voltage lines, a phenomenon known as induced atmospheric vibration,» it was quoted as saying. «These oscillations caused synchronization failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network.»
However, on Tuesday, Spain’s meteorological agency AEMET said that it had not detected any «unusual meteorological or atmospheric phenomena» Monday and no sudden temperature fluctuations were recorded at their weather stations.
Eduardo Prieto, Red Eléctrica’s chief of operations, said the instability in the power grid caused the Spanish and French electricity interconnection through the Pyrenees mountains to split, leading to a failure on the Spanish side, according to Reuters. The news agency reported that some parts of France suffered brief power outages on Monday as well.
People sleep in a sports facility designated for people who were stuck at a train station in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday, April 29. (Reuters/Bruna Casas)
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Authorities were still investigating what happened on Tuesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
INTERNACIONAL
As judge is charged with obstructing justice in migrant case, spinners cast it as an anti-Trump story
Here’s what actually happened to that Wisconsin judge.
Setting aside the spin – and there’s plenty of it from some Democrats and pundits – these are the facts.
Based on the criminal complaint, county judge Hannah Dugan had a hearing scheduled for illegal Mexican immigrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz – who is already facing charges of domestic abuse.
Not only that, Flores-Ruiz got into a fight with two roommates who complained that he was playing his music too loud.
Flores-Ruiz punched one roommate in the face 30 times, then hit a woman who tried to end the fight, the complaint says. Let that sink in for a minute.
WISCONSIN JUDGE’S ARREST BLASTED BY DEMOCRATS WHO PREVIOUSLY CLAIMED ‘NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW’ IN TRUMP CASES
Now let’s get to what Hannah Dugan did. (National Review’s Jim Geraghty has a highly detailed account with extensive quotes from the documents.)
First she blew off the hearing. ICE agents have the absolute power to arrest the immigrant at the county courthouse, and were closing in, but hoped to do it in a low-key manner.
Then she arranged for Flores-Ruiz to slip out a private exit, for the sole purpose of helping him avoid the federal agents. And it worked. But the agents tracked him down after a chase.
Many in the press have used the arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan as a political weapon against the Trump administration. (Mike De Sisti / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
This sounds very much like alleged obstruction of justice.
Now Dugan is entitled to the presumption of innocence, along with a healthy skepticism. We’ve only heard the government’s side of the story.
Does that sound like obstruction of justice? That’s what the judge has been charged with, along with concealing an individual to prevent an arrest.
The Washington Post yesterday made explicit what it implied a day earlier: «While many Republican supporters of the president cheered the aggressive actions, critics of the administration said the spectacle sent a chilling message.
«‘The obvious purpose of the arrest of Judge Dugan on criminal charges is to intimidate and threaten all judges, state and local, across the country,’ said J. Michael Luttig, a conservative former U.S. appeals court judge.»
Many others are treating Dugan’s arrest, unusual though it is, as an outrage.
Hannah Dugan is accused of helping conceal illegal Mexican immigrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz as ICE agents closed in on her court. (DHS/Milwaukee Independent via AP)
Before the arrest of Flores-Diaz, the Milwaukee county executive said: «An attack on this safe, community-serving space undermines public trust, breeds fear among citizens and staff and disrupts the due process essential to our courts,» An attack, says David Crowley.
Some other quotes helpfully rounded up by Geraghty:
Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith posted: «If Kash Patel,» the FBI director, «and Donald Trump don’t like a judge, they think they can arrest them.» So this was not about alleged obstruction of justice but some kind of personal animus toward Dugan? And I doubt Trump knew anything about this.
JUDGE WHO ALLEGEDLY HELPED MIGRANT DOESN’T DESERVE ‘SPECIAL TREATMENT,’ WISCONSIN LAWMAKER SAYS
New York Times columnist David Brooks said on PBS: «It strikes me as maybe something illegal, but it also strikes me as something heroic.» It MAY be illegal, but on what planet would the judge’s actions be deemed heroic??
And here’s one I found from Guardian columnist Moira Donegan, saying: «The Trump administration is making an example of the Milwaukee judge to intimidate critics and opponents.»
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So now the tale has morphed into an anti-Trump hit job. The president does plenty of things to intimidate critics and openly talks about it. This isn’t one of them.
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As for the politics, aren’t most voters going to be more concerned with keeping violent illegal migrants off our streets?
Media Buzz,Wisconsin,Judiciary,Immigration,Illegal Immigrants,Crime
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