As the Jewish state facilitates aid entry via the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation into the Strip, the United Nations is running a “mafia-like” shakedown and is spreading “panic” and making “declarations detached from reality,” Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.

“This is the gravest violation of the U.N.’s own principles,” he said. “It is the extortion of any well-meaning NGO that refuses to kiss the ring. A shakedown with U.N.-branding.”

Hamas knows that if it loses control over aid in Gaza, it will also lose its hold over Gazans, according to the Israeli envoy.