NYT: As Gazans Scrounge for Food and Water, Hamas Sits on a Rich Trove of Supplies

[BlueCheeseAgain]

As supplies of virtually every basic human necessity dwindle in Gaza, one group in the besieged enclave remains well-stocked: Hamas.

Arab and Western officials say there is substance to Israeli claims of Hamas stockpiling supplies, including desperately needed food and fuel. Hamas, they say, has spent years building dozens of kilometers of tunnels under the strip where it has amassed stores of virtually everything needed for a drawn-out fight. It is a reality that Israel may soon find itself grappling with if it makes good on its threat to invade Gaza.

Hamas has hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel for vehicles and rockets; caches of ammunition, explosives and materials to make more; and stockpiles of food, water and medicine, the officials said. A senior Lebanese official said Hamas, which is estimated to number between 35,000 and 40,000, had enough stocked away to keep fighting for three to four months without resupply.

Later on in this article is this rather interestingly phrased paragraph:

The supply situation speaks to the relative sophistication of Hamas as a fighting force — an axiom among military professionals is that while amateurs talk about tactics, professionals talk about logistics. Yet with Gazans facing a humanitarian catastrophe, Hamas’s stockpiles raise questions about what responsibility, if any, it has to the civilian population.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/27/us/politics/palestine-gazans-hamas-food.html

Isn't Hamas the government of Gaza? How can they not have responsibility to the civilian population? They may not care about the civilian population, but as the government and army that holds Gaza, they surely have the responsibility.

In any case, maybe some of the condemnations for the awful humanitarian crisis in Gaza should be redirected to Hamas, who have plenty of fuel for fighting and rockets, but seemingly none for hospitals and ambulances.