The thugs of Hamas have been stealing food and blankets and other aid meant for needy Palestinians for a long time, and it’s finally gotten so obvious that not even the United Nations can keep quiet about it any more.

JERUSALEM – A U.N. spokesman says Hamas police in Gaza have seized thousands of blankets and food parcels meant for needy residents.

Spokesman Christopher Gunness says Hamas police raided a U.N. warehouse in Gaza City on Tuesday evening. He says police snatched 3,500 blankets and more than 400 food parcels.

The aid is vital now because Gazans are facing hardship after Israel’s three-week military offensive against Hamas.

Meanwhile, after screeching to the heavens that Israel committed war crimes and deliberately targeted that school in Gaza, the UN now says, “Oops, our bad.”

The United Nations has retracted a claim that an Israeli strike which killed more than 40 people in northern Gaza city of Jabaliya last month hit a school run by a UN agency.

“The humanitarian coordinator would like to clarify that the shelling, and all of the fatalities, took place outside rather than inside the school,” the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest weekly update on the situation in Gaza.

What about all those wire service photographs showing pools of blood and bodies inside the school? Can anyone say, “staged?”