Billions in foreign aid have poured into Gaza. But as far as “Isma’il” is concerned, the sea might as well have swallowed it. Gaza is like the Bermuda Triangle, he says — everything that enters, disappears.

Between 2014-2020, UN agencies sent nearly $4.5 billion in aid to Gaza, and Qatar has provided an additional $1.3 billion since 2012. Yet the population lives at a subsistence level.

Hamas maintains that it does not “touch a single cent” of international aid, despite the active role it plays in its distribution. Most of the population are skeptical, however. A recent survey found that 73 percent of Gazans believe Hamas-run institutions are corrupt. On occasion, Hamas has been caught in outright theft. In 2009, the UN was briefly forced to halt aid shipments after Hamas gunmen stole several hundred tons of flour, blankets, and other aid. An UNRWA spokesman told the New York Times, "They were armed and we were not."