Hamas has profited by at least a half billion dollars from humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip, Channel 12 reported on Tuesday.

Approximately 200 aid trucks enter the Palestinian enclave daily. "It's actually become the main oxygen pipeline for the terrorist organization," reported Channel 12's Almog Boker.

Hamas steals the humanitarian aid and sells it to the population. It then uses the money to finance recruitment, Boker said, noting that 3,000 terrorists have been added to Hamas' payroll in northern Gaza.

Israelis on both right and left have condemned the ongoing aid theft by Hamas, their anger rekindled by last week's murder of six Israeli hostages in captivity.

The Tzav 9 ("Order 9") protest group has led the movement against Jerusalem's decision to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Strip.

"There is no logic in bringing the trucks directly to the hands of Hamas terrorists," the organization said.

Although the estimated $500 million that Hamas is reaping was first reported back in May, the government treats the aid as proof of its positive conduct towards Gazan civilians, with spokespeople for the Prime Minister's Office regularly counting off the number of trucks entering the Strip during press briefings.

"It is up to the entire nation to stand up so that this miserable and intolerable reality will end," Tzav 9 said. "No aid should go in until the last hostages return."

At the start of the war, the Biden administration demanded Israel allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, with President Joe Biden promising that if it ended up in the hands of Hamas it would be stopped.

However, the White House has continued pressuring Israel to increase the flow despite admitting publicly that Hamas — a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization — seizes much of the aid.

On June 14, the U.S. State Department sanctioned Tzav 9, which it called "a violent extremist Israeli group that has been blocking, harassing and damaging convoys carrying lifesaving humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza."

The State Department said that the Israeli government "has a responsibility to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian convoys," calling the aid "vital to preventing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from worsening and to mitigating the risk of famine."

Republished with permission from Jewish News Syndicate