Washington-A internal analysis of the United States government found no evidence of systematic theft by the Palestinian militant group Hamas of humanitarian supplies financed by the United States, challenging the main justification that Israel and the United States give to support a new armed private aid operation.
The analysis, which has not been previously informed, was carried out by an office within the United States Agency for International Development and was completed at the end of June. He examined 156 incidents of theft or loss of supplies financed by the United States reported by the associated American assistance organizations between October 2023 and this May.
He found that “there are no reports that allege Hamas” benefited from the supplies financed by the United States, according to a slide presentation of the findings seen by Reuters.
A state department spokesman played the findings, saying that there is evidence in Hamas video looting the aid, but did not provide such videos. The spokesman also accused traditional humanitarian groups of covering the “corruption of help.”
A White House spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, questioned the existence of the analysis, saying that no state department official had seen it and that “it was probably produced by a deep state operation” that sought to discredit the “humanitarian agenda” of President Donald Trump.
The findings were shared with the Usaid Inspector General’s office and the State Department officials involved in the Middle Eastern policy, two sources familiar with the matter said, and they deepen when the serious shortage of food is deepened in the devastated enclave.
Israel says he is committed to allowing help, but must control it to prevent Hamas from stealing it, which blames the crisis.
The UN World Food Program says that almost a quarter of the 2.1 million Palestinians of Gaza face hunger conditions, thousands are suffering acute malnutrition and the World Health Organization and doctors in the enclave report deaths of children and others.
The UN also estimates that the Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people looking for food supplies, mostly near the militarized distribution sites of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the new private aid group that uses an American logistics firm directed by a former CIA officer and armed military veterans of the United States.
The study was conducted by the USAID Humanitarian Assistance Office (BHA), which was the largest assistance financier to Gaza before the Trump administration freezed all foreign help in the United States in January, finishing thousands of programs. It has also begun to dismantle USAID, whose functions have been bent in the State Department.
The analysis found that at least 44 of the 156 incidents in which stolen or lost help supplies were “directly or indirectly” due to Israeli military actions, according to informative slides.
Israel’s army did not answer questions about those findings.
The study pointed out a limitation: because the Palestinians who receive help cannot be examined, it was possible that the supplies financed by the United States went to administrative officials of Hamas, the Islamist rulers of Gaza.
A source familiar with the study also warned that the absence of generalized deviation reports of Hamas “does not mean that the detour has not occurred.”
The war in Gaza began after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli stories. According to Palestinian health officials, almost 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli assault began, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israel says that Hamas deviates the aid
Israel, who controls access to Gaza, has said that Hamas steals the UN food supplies and other organizations to use to control the civilian population and increase their finances, even by measuring the prices of goods and resell them to civilians.
When asked about the USAID report, the Israeli army told Reuters that his accusations are based on intelligence reports that Hamas militants seized charges for “both undercover and openly”, embedding in help trucks.
These reports also show that Hamas has diverted up to 25% of the supplies of help to their combatants or sold them to civilians, said the Israeli army, and added that GHF has finished control of the help of militants by distributing it directly to civilians.
Hamas denies the accusations. A Hamas security officer said that Israel has killed more than 800 police officers affiliated with Hamas and security guards trying to protect help vehicles and convoyas routes. Its missions were coordinated with the UN
Reuters could not independently verify the statements of Hamas and Israel, who have not done public evidence that militants have systematically stole the help.
GHF also accuses Hamas of theft of mass aid to defend his distribution model. The UN and other groups have rejected GHF calls, Israel and the United States to cooperate with the Foundation, saying that it violates international neutrality principles.
In response to a comment request, GHF sent Reuters to an article by Washington Post on July 2 that quoted an unidentified Gazan and Israeli anonymous officials saying that Hamas benefited from sales and serious sales of stolen humanitarian aid.
Help groups required to inform losses
The 156 robbery reports or supplies of supplies reviewed by BHA were presented by UN agencies and other humanitarian groups that work in Gaza as a condition for receiving American aid funds.
The second source familiar with the matter said that after receiving reports from robberies or losses of help financed by the United States, the USAID staff continued with associated organizations to try to determine if there was Hamas participation.
These organizations also “redirect or pause” the aid distributions if they knew that Hamas was close, the source said.
Help organizations that work in Gaza must also examine their staff, subcontractors and ties suppliers with extremist groups before receiving US funds, a condition that the State Department resigned to approve $ 30 million for GHF last month.
The submission of slides pointed out that USAID partners tended to inform excessively the deviation and theft of sanctioned groups or designated by the United States as foreign terrorist organizations, such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, because they want to avoid losing funds from the United States.
Of the 156 incidents of loss or theft reported, 63 were attributed to unknown perpetrators, 35 to armed actors, 25 to unarmed people, 11 directly to the Israeli military action, 11 to corrupt subcontractors, five to help the group staff “in corrupt activities” and six to “others”, a category that accounted for the “comfort in the unknown circumstances. Slide
Armed actors “included gangs and other diverse people who may have had weapons,” said a slide. Another slide said that “a review of the 156 incidents did not find affiliations with” foreign terrorist organizations designated by the United States, of which Hamas is one.
“Most incidents could not definitely attribute to a specific actor,” said another slide. “The partners often discovered to a large extent that the products had been stolen in transit without identifying the author.”
It is possible that there are classified intelligence reports on Hamas’ help theft, but BHA personnel lost access to classified systems in Usaid dismantling, said a slide.
However, a source familiar with the intelligence evaluations of the United States.
The BHA analysis found that the Israeli army “directly or indirectly caused” a total of 44 incidents in which aid financed by the United States was lost or stole. Those included the 11 attributed to Israeli direct military actions, such as air attacks or orders to the Palestinians to evacuate the areas of the enclave devastated by war.
Losses indirectly attributed to the Israeli army included cases in which they forced the help groups to use delivery routes with high risks of robbery or looting, ignoring requests for alternative routes, according to the analysis.
