The U.S. and Israel have finally exposed a massive chink in Hamas’s armor, and no amount of feinting can prevent them from pricking the terror group’s legitimacy again and again. Handing out meals to Gazans might seem like a tried-and-failed tactic, but everything changed when the good guys finally cut out the terrorist middleman. After closing on Saturday due to threats, the U.S.-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) reopened on Sunday and resumed its mission of distributing meals directly to the civilians of Gaza.

Until Israel’s most recent offensive, various U.N. agencies oversaw the distribution of most humanitarian aid in Gaza, including agencies tied to Hamas and the October 7 terror attack. Observers had noticed that Hamas kept getting its hands on U.N. supplies, but the full extent of the terror group’s kleptocracy did not hit home until the Trump administration launched a program to deliver humanitarian aid directly to Gazans — who were surprised to learn that the meals were free.

In less than 10 weeks, the American GHF has distributed roughly 10 million meals in Gaza, including 1.6 million meals on Sunday. And, unlike U.N. warehouses, where Hamas militias pilfered what they pleased, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have successfully repulsed Hamas operatives from the three GHF nodes operating in Gaza.

The program is not flawless. For at least the second time in a week, GHF suspended its Gaza operations on Saturday due to Hamas’s “direct threats against GHF operations.” GHF previously suspended operations on Wednesday after reports of violence prompted the IDF to extend its security perimeter and provide safer access routes.

But the hiccups on this highway must be blamed on Hamas, not the U.S., or even Israel. “Hamas is the reason hundreds of thousands of hungry Gazans were not fed today,” insisted the GHF in a Saturday press release. “The group issued direct threats against GHF operations. These threats made it impossible to proceed today without putting innocent lives at risk.”

Not that Hamas cares one way or the other whether or not the civilians of Gaza starve. They only care that, by providing a legitimate alternative to their culinary tyranny, the GHF poses a direct threat to their hold over Gazans. “Hamas wants to return to a broken system it once controlled and exploited — diverting aid, manipulating distribution, and putting its own agenda ahead of the Palestinian people’s basic needs,” GHF insisted.

Before resorting to outright threats, Hamas first indulged in the manufacture of fraudulent falsehoods. Last week, Hamas claimed that the IDF shot 31 Gazan civilians seeking aid on Sunday and another 27 civilians on Tuesday. Such blood-curdling reports would certainly deter any Gazan with a sense of self-preservation from approaching the aid distribution hubs — if there were an ounce of truth in them. But the ongoing aid distribution — which implies an ongoing stream of Gazans seeking aid — proves that most Gazans know better than to believe Hamas’s lies.

The same cannot be said for the mainstream media, which parroted the propaganda far and wide — faster than Israel could deny and disprove it.

“It was the most outrageous and recklessly irresponsible act of so-called journalism that I’ve seen in a while,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on “This Week on Capitol Hill.” The “totally biased and fake news is contributing to the anti-Semitic attitude, the kind of atmosphere that leads people to throw Molotov cocktails at an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor in Boulder, Colorado. And it gets two young people assassinated on the street in cold blood, shot in the back by a terrorist yelling ‘Free Palestine!’ … This is not innocent journalism.”

It is “not just the legacy media” repeating Hamas’s propaganda, observed Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, “but the United Nations is in part using it — the U.N. Security Council using it this week to advance a resolution.” The resolution, which the U.S. vetoed, deplored the “catastrophic humanitarian situation” in Gaza — where the U.S. and Israel are now feeding most of the population despite Hamas’s best efforts.

“The U.N. has been warning for weeks that there needs to be a humanitarian effort. As soon as there was one, they started complaining that they didn’t like the way it was being conducted,” Huckabee responded. “This is like saying, ‘I’m so very hungry. I am so very, very hungry,’ — and then when the food shows up saying, ‘I don’t like the color of plate.’”

“The U.N. has not lifted a finger,” he continued. “They have not done anything to actually feed people. They criticize, they complained, they have conspired with Hamas.”

If anything, the fiasco demonstrates that placing Hamas back in charge of Gaza — as calls for an immediate ceasefire or other two-state proposals would require — is incompatible with the best interest of the people of Gaza, not to mention Israel.

“The United States has taken the very clear position since this conflict began that Israel has a right to defend itself, which includes defeating Hamas and ensuring they are never again in a position to threaten Israel,” insisted Dorothy Shea, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., in explaining the Trump administration’s veto. “In this regard, any product that undermines our close ally Israel’s security is a non-starter.”

“GHF will not be deterred,” the organization responded to the latest threats. “We remain committed to safe, secure, and independent aid delivery. We are actively adapting our operations to overcome these threats and fully intend to resume distributions without delay.”