Israel war: ‘High risk’ Hamas could steal Gaza aid, Biden administration watchdog warns

A Biden administration watchdog issued a warning Friday about the high risk that taxpayer funds sent to Gaza could end up in the hands of terrorists.

The U.S. Agency for International Development’s inspector general said in a memo that Hamas and other terrorist groups would likely attempt to steal humanitarian assistance that the Biden administration intends to send to Palestinians.

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Citing President Joe Biden’s announcement of a $100 million aid package for Gaza and the West Bank, the USAID inspector general’s office noted that it “has identified this area as high-risk for potential diversion and misuse of U.S.-funded assistance.”

Local groups receiving or tasked with distributing the aid may be “limited to those who have formal or informal authorization from armed groups,” the watchdog noted, pointing to its findings from U.S. humanitarian work in other conflict regions. Terrorist organizations like Hamas may also coerce aid workers who are trying to administer the assistance fairly, according to the memo.

The warning on Friday was not the first time the USAID inspector general has raised concerns about the potential influence of terrorist groups in Gaza. Weeks before Hamas attacked Israel, the office published an audit of humanitarian programs for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in which it said USAID had not done enough to manage the risk that taxpayer money may end up benefiting terrorist groups.

Some Republicans on Capitol Hill have objected to Biden’s plan for sending aid to Gaza amid the war between Hamas and Israel.

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The White House included even more humanitarian funding for Palestinians in Gaza in its request to Congress for a more than $100 billion supplemental spending bill, which consisted mostly of military assistance to Israel and Ukraine.

Biden administration officials have begun calling for a temporary pause in the fighting to allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza, although critics have said doing so would help Hamas by giving terrorists time to regroup.