On Wednesday night, Hamas terrorists attacked a bus of Palestinian aid workers on its way to an aid distribution center of the U.S.-sponsored Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The attack demonstrates the terror group’s increasing desperation over the U.S.-Israeli aid distribution campaign that has rocked its hold on power to the core.

At approximately 10 p.m. local time, the bus filled with GHF staff was traveling to the aid distribution center west of Khan Yunis, when Hamas operatives ambushed the bus, strafing its sides with gunfire. “We are still gathering facts, but what we know is devastating: there are at least five fatalities, multiple injuries, and fear that some of our team members may have been taken hostage,” said GHF in a statement Wednesday. On Thursday, Reuters reported that at least eight GHF staffers were dead.

“The GHF holds Hamas fully responsible for taking the lives of our dedicated workers who have been distributing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people at the foundation’s sites in central and southern Gaza,” the organization declared. “We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms. These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons, and friends, who were risking their lives every day to help others.” Hamas has not officially taken responsibility for the attack, but all the signs point in their direction.

The U.S. launched the GHF in conjunction with Israel’s most recent military offensive, as a way to provide humanitarian aid to Gazans apart from the U.N. organs operating in Gaza, which are irreparably compromised by Hamas, and whose aid is often stolen by Hamas. The program was an instant success, as Gazans were surprised to learn — after years of buying it from Hamas — that international food aid is supposed to be free.

As of Wednesday, GHF had delivered more than 16 million meals in a matter of weeks, including a record 2.5 million meals on Wednesday. “My hope is that we will maintain our momentum and continue to provide additional food aid to Gazans,” said GHF interim executive director John Acree. “Our operations are improving, and I’m encouraged by our ability to provide a significant amount of aid on a daily basis. It proves that our system is working.”

“Until now, Hamas has used the aid distribution networks of the U.N. to maintain … its regime and to maintain its chokehold on the Palestinians in Gaza,” senior Israeli advisor Caroline Glick explained on “Washington Watch.” “Suddenly, they’ve lost that, which is the one thing that has kept them in power the whole time.”

At first, Hamas tried to discredit the GHF aid effort with fake stories about Israeli massacres at the aid distribution sites. This was a clever tactic, given the global media’s inexcusable gullibility toward Hamas’s past propaganda. But the lies cut out of whole cloth were soon exposed as frauds; the stories may have inspired a U.S. terror attack, but they failed to dissuade Gazans — who, through hard experience, know better than to believe Hamas — away from the free food aid.

Undeterred, Hamas continues to plant propaganda about Israeli war crimes through the Gaza Health Ministry — which Hamas controls — announcing Wednesday that Israel had killed 103 wounded and 400 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip in a 24-hour period. Of course, the Gaza Strip remains an active war zone, and casualty statistics released by the Gaza Health Ministry never distinguish between combatants and civilians.

But Hamas also escalated to other forms of pressure on the GHF. “This attack did not happen in a vacuum,” alleged the GHF. “For days, Hamas has openly threatened our team, our aid workers, and the civilians who receive aid from us.”

On Sunday, news broke that Hamas had threatened GHF aid workers via text message. “We are fully aware of everything you are doing, and all your movements are being monitored with extreme precision. You will not be forgiven for your involvement in projects that harm the dignity of our people and serve suspicious agendas under the guise of humanitarian work,” warned one message. Said another: “This is your final warning: Continuing down this path will have severe consequences, and you will bear full responsibility for the outcomes of your actions. Stop now, or else.”

On Sunday, Hamas also announced that its terrorist brigades have “full authority and mandate to strike decisively against any entity or individual collaborating with the enemy’s plans or with any rogue, criminal, or traitorous elements that violate the law and the traditions of our people.” This would certainly include Gazans collaborating with the GHF, which Hamas has called “nothing more than a propaganda front for the Israeli occupation army.”

To be clear, Hamas considers the GHF an enemy because the organization is providing Gazans with free food that Hamas cannot steal to pay its terrorists. It has now resorted to directly killing Gaza civilians who partner with the GHF. This may be difficult for the mainstream media to grasp, but Hamas hates the GHF because its labors show definitively that Hamas is the bad guy and Israel is the good guy in this conflict.

This has been true all along, but it has been distorted by Hamas’s prowess at propaganda. It becomes much harder to maintain the fiction when the U.S. and Israel are the ones supplying aid, and Hamas is the one shooting aid workers. That Hamas has stooped to this tactic shows their desperation.

There may be another dimension to the bus attack showing that Hamas has been weakened even further. Gazan social media channels have suggested that Hamas targeted the bus because the GHF workers aboard were allegedly tied to clan leader Yasser Abu Shabab, Reuters reported. Clan leaders form the social backbone of Gaza’s sequestered, traditional population. In March of this year, clan leaders organized rare public protests against Hamas, a sign that the terror group’s hold is weakening. Shabab has publicly criticized Hamas’s brutality and is reportedly being armed by Israel.

Even Hamas’s barbarous bus attack will not deter GHF from its operations in Gaza. Handing out food in a warzone is a critical — if dangerous — mission, and those who courageously volunteered for this service knew the risks they could run. On Thursday, Acree decided to keep GHF centers open for business, saying, “[T]he best response to Hamas’[s] cowardly murderers was to keep delivering food for the people of Gaza who are counting on us.”

On Thursday, GHF set another record, handing out 2.6 million meals to Gazans — 2.6 million meals for which those Gazans are not beholden to Hamas. No wonder Hamas (and its friends at the U.N.) are working so hard to discredit or destroy the program — so far without success.