An evaluation compiled by USAID officers inspecting greater than 150 reported incidents involving the theft or lack of U.S.-funded humanitarian help within the war-torn Gaza Strip says it failed to seek out any proof that Hamas — the militant rulers of the Palestinian enclave — engaged in widespread diversion of help, based on a presentation reviewed by ABC Information.
The findings of the report seem to undercut the Trump administration’s repeated claims that Hamas has recurrently interfered with help distribution prior to now — assertions it has used to justify its help for the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Basis (GHF) and for measures undertaken by Israel to restrict the circulation of help to neighboring Gaza by different pathways.
The GHF — with Israel’s approval and regardless of rejection from the United Nations — took over a lot of the help distribution system in Gaza on Might 27, after an 11-week Israeli blockade on all provides from getting into the strip. Israel has lengthy accused Hamas of stealing help supplied by the U.N. — previously the principle distributor — and others to fund its militant exercise — claims which Hamas denies.
Israel has allowed a restricted quantity of provides into Gaza since lifting the blockade and, based on an Israeli safety official, is “coordinating future airdrops of help” by international nations “which can be anticipated to happen within the coming days.” This comes after a coalition of greater than 100 organizations warned this week that “mass hunger” is spreading in Gaza with “provides now completely depleted.”
USAID officers behind the presentation say they analyzed alleged incidents of fraud, abuse and waste reported between October 2023, when the continued Israel-Hamas conflict started, and final Might. It was compiled earlier than the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAID) — as soon as the world’s largest single donor of humanitarian help — formally ceased unbiased operations on July 1. The Trump administration canceled greater than 80% of the company’s packages, whereas the rest have been absorbed by the U.S. Division of State.
USAID officers say their findings point out that within the majority of circumstances involving the lack of help, the perpetrator couldn’t be definitively recognized.
Somoud Wahdan appears on the digital camera as she sits along with her baby in an space within the northern Gaza Strip, whereas ready for vans with humanitarian help to reach, in Gaza Metropolis, Friday, July 25, 2025.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
The Israel Protection Forces denied the report in an announcement to ABC Information, saying “not solely does the report ignore clear and specific proof that Hamas exploits humanitarian help to maintain its preventing capabilities, it goes as far as to criticize the IDF for routing selections made particularly to guard humanitarian workers and shipments.”
The IDF added that when it “directs help deliveries alongside particular routes, it’s primarily based on the operational actuality and intelligence assessments, geared toward safeguarding each the help and the humanitarian actors — exactly the problem the report claims isn’t being addressed.”
The State Division can also be pushing again forcefully on the evaluation, which was first reported by Reuters, in addition to media protection associated to the matter.
A State Division spokesperson referred to as it “astonishing” that “the media is busy debating whether or not the masterminds of Oct. 7 are in some way too principled to loot.”
“There’s infinite video proof of Hamas looting, to not point out members of the aid-industrial complicated who’ve admitted that looting exists by reporting it as ‘self-distribution,’ in a poor try at an help corruption coverup,” the spokesperson mentioned. “Out there intelligence confirms what’s mirrored in open-source data: that a good portion of non-GHF help vans have been diverted, looted, stolen, or ‘self-distributed.'”
Regardless of this, the Trump administration — a staunch ally of Israel — has supplied no proof of Hamas finishing up widespread help diversion so far.
The IDF mentioned it’s “making large efforts to allow the protected distribution of humanitarian help below complicated operational circumstances.”
The continuing Gaza conflict erupted after Hamas led a shock terror assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 folks there and taking 251 others hostage, based on figures from the Israeli authorities. Since then, Israeli forces have killed greater than 59,000 folks in Gaza, based on knowledge launched by the strip’s Hamas-run Ministry of Well being.
