U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee pushed back on a call from the World Health Organization to pressure Israel on Gaza aid, calling instead for international focus on Hamas to “sign an agreement so that humanitarian aid can flow into Gaza to the people who desperately need it.”
In a Monday post on X, Huckabee shared a video message responding to a request from Dr. Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, who had urged him to press Israel to increase humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
“How about we put the pressure where it really belongs — on Hamas,” Huckabee wrote in the post.
“This past weekend, Dr. Hanan Balkhy… called upon me to put more pressure on Israel to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” he states in the video. “I appreciate the message… and today what I would like to suggest is that we work together on putting the pressure where it really belongs, on Hamas.”
Huckabee called for the terror group, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, to sign an agreement that would allow safe and unrestricted delivery of aid, while also demanding the release of Israeli hostages abducted during Hamas’s October 7 attacks.
“When that happens… we hope that humanitarian aid will flow, and flow freely, knowing that it will be done without Hamas being able to confiscate and abuse their own people,” he said.
The ambassador’s statement comes amid mounting international pressure on Israel to allow greater aid access into Gaza. Israeli officials maintain that Hamas routinely diverts or seizes humanitarian shipments for its own use, a concern echoed by U.S. lawmakers and aid groups on the ground.
A recent Wall Street Journal investigation confirmed that Hamas stole humanitarian aid intended for civilians in Gaza and resold it to fund its war efforts — undermining international law claims and exposing the terror group’s exploitation of relief efforts.
“It was outrageous that the Biden Administration forced deliveries of aid to Hamas in the first place,” responded Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton.
Last month, Eli Sharabi, a recently released Israeli hostage and survivor of Hamas captivity, delivered powerful testimony before the UN Security Council exposing Hamas’s theft of foreign aid and abuse of civilians.
Huckabee’s remarks reinforce the view that humanitarian suffering in Gaza is inseparable from Hamas’s continued control, and that pressuring Israel without demanding accountability from Hamas risks further emboldening the terror group.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
