United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher has demanded that Israel provide evidence for its accusations that staff with the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs were affiliated with Palestinian militants Hamas,

Israel has long restricted or completely blocked aid to Gaza on the argument that Hamas steals it to use as a weapon of control over the population.

Anonymous IDF officials claimed there was no evidence to suggest that Hamas routinely stole humanitarian aid, the New York Times reported on Saturday, while denying the Israeli military ever published proof that the Palestinian terror group systematically looted humanitarian resources.