As Rafah reopens, US Amb Huckabee blames Hamas for Gaza’s humanitarian crisis

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee articulated cautious optimism on Friday about the recent reopening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. He blamed the terrorist organization Hamas for the humanitarian crisis in the coastal enclave. 

“There’s a legitimately diligent effort to get this done. But we’re talking about people who are vastly displaced, because Hamas extended this war long before [sic] it should have been extended,” Huckabee said in an interview with Israel's Public Broadcasting Service. He emphasized that Gazans passing through the Rafah crossing should “be properly vetted so that you don’t bring terrorists in or take terrorists out.”

He added that Hamas “could have ended this long before the destruction, but they wanted to hold hostages and torture them and starve them and make it difficult for them.”

Looking ahead, Huckabee expressed hope that the situation in Gaza would improve after Hamas is disarmed. “I’m hoping that, once they’re disarmed and we get rid of them, things will progress much more rapidly."

Hamas has so far refused to disarm as stipulated in the American-brokered ceasefire agreement in October 2025. 

U.S. President Donald Trump warned last month at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos that Hamas would be “blown away very quickly” if it did not disarm in the next few weeks. 

“Hamas has agreed to give up their weapons,” Trump claimed without elaborating. Trump also formally presented the Gaza Board of Peace (BoP) during the top summit in Switzerland. 

Huckabee argued on Friday that people on the Gaza Board of Peace “want to actually do some heavy lifting and make Gaza livable again.” He blasted the United Nations for its failure to make a positive difference in Gaza. 

“ We saw here in Israel what happened when the United Nations was in charge of the food program,” Huckabee said. 

“It was absolutely dismal; 92% of the food that was supposed to go to people who were hungry ended up getting looted or stolen or hijacked,” he continued. 

“But there needs to be a much leaner operation in order to get Gaza on its feet. And I think that it’s not something that you can just say to nations, say to Iran or North Korea, I’m sure you guys will have a really noble experiment here, and you will want to do it the right way,” he argued.

He added that the BoP will only incorporate individuals who “meet the criteria of wanting to do it right.”

Last month, Israeli leaders across the political spectrum expressed concern and even outrage after the Trump administration announced that Turkey and Qatar would be included in the Gaza Executive Board. Qatar does not have any official diplomatic relations with Israel and has developed close ties with Hamas, which openly calls for Israel’s destruction and the murder of all Jews. 

Relations between Turkey and Israel have deteriorated sharply since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping of 251 people from southern Israel in 2023.

The Turkish Islamist government has refused to condemn the Hamas massacre and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has even refused to recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization with a genocidal anti-Semitic ideology.

Erdogan has instead equated Israel self-defense operations against Hamas with genocide and compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.