Hamas-Enforced Taxes on Humanitarian Aid Spark Deadly Clan Fight in Khan Yunis

Photo Credit: Majdi Fathi/TPS-IL

Gazans loot aid trucks carrying humanitarian aid that arrived from a US-built offshore pier on May 18, 2024.

Members of a heavily armed Gazan clan in Khan Yunis violently clashed with Hamas police on Sunday night over Hamas taxes on humanitarian aid deliveries, The Press Service of Israel has learned.

The fighting broke out when members of the Jargon family refused to pay tax on a cigarette truck passing through the clan’s area of the southern Gaza city. Hamas charges a tax on trucks ranging from $50,000 to 50 percent of the value of the delivery.

TPS-IL has learned that the Jargon family had recently paid Hamas $80,000 in protection money for a certain number of trucks under the clan’s protection to pass through Khan Yunis and did not want to make another payment.

According to reports from Gaza, there were casualties on both sides.

Hamas recently established a new police unit called “Arrow” tasked with securing trucks delivering humanitarian aid and directing them exclusively to the terror group’s storage facilities. Gaza residents claim that this unit is made up of around 1,000 people, many of whom are residents of Jabaliya in northern Gaza. The force is said to be equipped with US-made M16 weapons and headed by the chief of the Khan Yunis police.

The unit enjoys great support from the clans and residents of Gaza, indicating the importance of food distribution as a means of controlling the population. Since mid-November, around 85% of aid trucks entering Gaza were looted.

TPS-IL learned that Hamas has granted distribution lines to these groups to ensure that humanitarian aid exclusively reaches Hamas. In return, these gangs receive money, food and vouchers. Hamas also pays these gangs $10,000 a month to maintain checkpoints.

Meanwhile, sacks of flour and rice donated by the West are being sold for $700 and $500 respectively while a pack of cigarettes costs $1,500.

In September, Arab sources told TPS-IL that Hamas was charging $800 for donated tents.

At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.