Rick Scott to oppose Biden's humanitarian aid to Gaza, says Hamas would steal assistance

BOCA RATON — U.S. Sen. Rick Scott will oppose the Biden administration plan to send aid to Palestinians, saying such humanitarian aid will be seized by the Hamas terrorist group.

"I completely oppose giving money to Hamas. I completely oppose giving money to the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization)," Scott said Thursday night after speaking at a Boca Raton synagogue. “Hamas runs Gaza. Any aid that's going to go into Gaza, will go to Hamas.”

The Republican spoke just before President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office. In his remarks, Biden drew a sharp distinction between the Palestinian people and the Hamas terrorist organization.

"Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people," the president said. "Hamas uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, and innocent Palestinian families are suffering greatly because of them."

Biden acknowledged the paramount importance of insuring "Hamas does not divert or steal" aid shipments and said that in his discussions with the Israeli and Egyptian leaders, he had "secured an agreement for the first shipment of humanitarian assistance from the United Nations to Palestinian civilians" living in Gaza.

A day earlier, during a speech in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Biden had also warned Hamas that diverting the aid instead of giving it to Palestinians would bring an end to the money.

Scott was not convinced, adding that he opposed the use U.S. taxpayer money to supply aid sent to Gaza, saying it would indirectly subsidize the Palestine Liberation Organization, or PLO.

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Scott, as have former President Donald Trump and Republican leaders, has also blamed the Biden administration for the attack, saying that the unfreezing of $6 billion worth of Iranian assets as part of the deal with Iran to release American hostages was a mistake.

“Iran wants to destroy every Jew they know. They want to destroy America. They want to destroy Israel,” Scott said.

Scott said that he believed the money was used by Iran to “support terrorism” by funding the attacks on Israel.

White House officials, however, have sought to debunk such claims by noting that Iran did not have access to those funds and that there's no evidence they were used to finance the attacks.

This month the Biden presidential campaign chastised Trump, saying he was "pushing dangerous misinformation about the crisis in Israel at a time when we should be standing together to support the country."

A Biden campaign statement pointed to reports from Fox News that the $6 billion is in a secure bank account in Qatar, and the U.S. Treasury must validate "the bills of lading for the money" to be withdrawn, according to social-media posts by a Fox News reporter on X, formerly Twitter.

The report said none of the frozen Iranian money could have been used by Hamas.

Stephany Matat is a politics reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY-Florida network. Reach her at smatat@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Rick Scott opposes Biden's humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza