The truth is finally out. The wall-to-wall condemnations of Israel reported by our Benny Avni at the United Nations on Wednesday make clear that the uproar over aid to Gaza for all these months has not been aimed at feeding the Palestinian Arabs. It is about empowering and funding Hamas. Now that a mechanism to get aid to the Palestinians while going around Hamas is launched, the UN is fit to be tied.

This is what Mr. Avni characterizes as one of the most significant developments in the 600-day war. Depriving Hamas of one of its top sources of income — selling confiscated foreign aid to Gazans at exorbitant prices — could end the terror organization’s hold over Gaza’s population and hasten the end of the war, Israelis say. Yet the UN is reacting with what the spokeswoman for the Department of State, Tammy Bruce, calls “the height of hypocrisy.”

True enough, and it’s nice to see the state department putting the scandal in plain language. Speaking at the Security Council Wednesday, Mr. Avni reports, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said the world body is “actively joining Hamas in trying to block that aid.” The UN, he said, “is using threats, intimidation, and retaliation against NGOs that choose to participate in the new humanitarian mechanism.”

Mr. Danon uses the words “mafia-like” to describe the methods being used against the nongovernmental organizations that take part in the American-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s efforts. Israel is hoping that depriving Hamas of finances it derives from confiscating and reselling aid will complement its intensifying military campaign, which just confirmed the death in March of the latest Hamas chief, Mohammed Sinwar.

Shockingly, Mr. Avni reports, nearly all speakers at the session condemned Israel for allegedly denying aid to Gazans. France was particularly execrable in emerging as a leader against Israel within the UN. France was among the UN members who called on the Security Council to pass a resolution that would demand an “immediate and unconditional lifting” of alleged Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries.

Great Britain, too, is playing a role in the scandal. Tom Fletcher, a Briton who leads humanitarian efforts at the UN, demanded to know whether the Security Council would “prevent genocide.” Mr. Fletcher was the hapless UN aide who was just forced to retract his claim that 14,000 Gaza babies would be starved to death within 48 hours. This week he claimed that Israel is blocking 10,000 trucks from entering Gaza.

The best way to look at all this is as part of the preparations that have been under way this month for “a crucial international” parley to be chaired — possibly at the UN itself — by France and Saudi Arabia in June. The conference is supposedly to push the ideas of Palestinian statehood, which would reward Hamas for its October 7 atrocities. Hence the UN’s desperation to keep Israel and America from directly feeding residents of Gaza, and keep Hamas in power. 

This is a moment to remember what Hamas did in October 2023. It is a moment to recall the aims of the war that Prime Minister Netanyahu, backed by the whole of Israel, declared against Hamas. This is no time to retreat from or redefine those war aims. It is a moment to achieve them — including the destruction of Hamas once and for all so that the burden of terror can be lifted from the Palestinian Arabs as well as the Israelis.