Hamas rakes in up to $5 million daily in Gaza while rearming, plotting soldier abductions, Israeli reports say

Hamas has also increased efforts in recent weeks to move weapons from underground tunnels into aboveground facilities, particularly schools and hospitals.

By Debbie Weiss, The Algemeiner

Hamas is generating as much as $5 million a day from goods entering Gaza while rebuilding tunnels, accumulating weapons, and planning possible attacks on Israeli troops, including attempts to kidnap soldiers, according to separate Israeli television reports this week citing security officials.

Neomi Neumann, a former head of research at Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, told the Kan public broadcaster on Thursday that Hamas continues to exercise effective control over Gaza’s population through a decentralized system of taxation, aid distribution, and covert enforcement.

Neumann, now an adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, estimated that Hamas earns between $2 million and $5 million daily by imposing heavy taxes on goods entering the enclave and exploiting humanitarian assistance.

“Everything that enters the Strip becomes a source of income for Hamas,” Neumann said in the interview. “It confiscates some of the humanitarian aid and sells the goods at high prices on the black market.”

Hamas also uses its control over supplies to determine which residents receive goods and services, creating economic dependence on the Palestinian terrorist group, she said.

It charges residents for services and remains the principal source of employment in Gaza, according to Neumann.

A separate report by Channel 12 cited Israeli and Palestinian sources describing preparations for renewed fighting, including potential attacks on Israeli military bases inside Gaza and attempts to abduct soldiers.

According to the network, a prevailing assumption within Gaza is that Israel could receive American approval to resume fighting after the US midterm elections next month.

Hamas is therefore considering initiating attacks before Israel launches another major operation.

The network also reported increased efforts in recent weeks to move weapons from underground tunnels into aboveground facilities, particularly schools and hospitals.

It said Hamas has been using Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis as its principal headquarters and an interrogation facility.

Palestinians cited in the report said Hamas had restricted the hours during which patients could receive treatment to accommodate its operations at the hospital.

The group’s preparations have also affected ammunition prices, according to Channel 12.

The price of a single M16 bullet has risen from 30 shekels to 70 shekels over the past month amid extensive purchases by Hamas, which is distributing weapons and ammunition to its operatives and Gaza residents affiliated with the Islamist group.

Hamas has also resumed digging tunnels throughout the enclave using improvised equipment, the network reported.

Israeli security officials said the renewed construction appeared to be primarily defensive, intended to prepare Hamas for another round of fighting.

While the Channel 12 report focused on Hamas’s preparations for possible military confrontation, Neumann described how the group has preserved its civilian authority despite relinquishing formal governmental responsibilities.

Rather than governing openly through a centralized administration, Hamas now operates a network of informal institutions that allow it to retain control without assuming direct responsibility for conditions facing Gaza’s residents, she said.

The group continues to perform policing and enforcement functions, but increasingly relies on clandestine units instead of visible security forces.

“They instill fear, enforce discipline, and restore control in areas where governance has collapsed,” Neumann said.

In an analysis published Tuesday by the Washington Institute, Neumann offered additional details about the group’s financing, citing research indicating that Hamas imposes taxes of 15% to 25% on commercial goods brought into Gaza by private traders.

She also described revenue from smuggling, fuel sales, and digital money transfers, on which Hamas-linked networks can impose commissions reaching 40%.

The group’s ability to distribute aid and pay salaries to thousands of employees has helped maintain its influence even without a formal government, she wrote.

“The Palestinian public encounters Hamas every day, so as far as they are concerned, Hamas is here to stay,” Neumann told Kan.

The assessments come almost a year after the October 2025 ceasefire secured the return of Israel’s remaining hostages and set out a process intended to lead to Hamas’s disarmament, alternative Palestinian governance, and an eventual Israeli withdrawal.

Those later provisions have stalled. Israeli forces continue to control roughly two-thirds of the Gaza Strip, while Hamas retains authority in much of the remaining territory, where most of Gaza’s approximately 2 million residents are concentrated, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Israeli strikes and intermittent fighting have continued despite the ceasefire.

Neumann said that US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan should still be implemented, but argued that both Hamas and Israel were obstructing progress.

“The plan is good, and we need to move forward with it, but there are two problems: Both Hamas and Israel are creating obstacles,” she said.

Hamas is demanding that Israel withdraw before it disarms, while Israel insists that Hamas surrender its weapons first.

She called for the deployment of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the Palestinian technocratic body established under Trump’s plan, alongside an international stabilization force.

Neither has entered Gaza, although both are intended to play central roles in the territory’s transition away from Hamas rule.

Neumann said the Palestinian Authority should eventually replace Hamas as Gaza’s governing body.

In the meantime, she urged measures to cut off Hamas’s income, prevent its members from embedding themselves in new governing institutions, and establish aid distribution systems that do not depend on the group.

She also warned against allowing Hamas to expand its influence in Judea and Samaria.

Kan reported that an official associated with Trump’s Board of Peace had criticized Israel last month for failing to decisively dismantle Hamas, accusing it of reverting to the policies that preceded the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

Israeli officials told the board that Israel would disarm Hamas itself if the group refused to surrender its weapons.

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