Washington – An analysis of the internal American government has found No evidence of systematic theft by the Palestinian militant group Hamas of humanitarian supplies funded by the United States, which questions the main justification that Israel and the United States give for support A new armed private assistance operation.
The analysis, which was not previously reported, was led by an office in the American agency for international development and completed at the end of June. He examined 156 Flight or loss of supplies funded by the United States Reported by American aid partner organizations between October 2023 and May.
He revealed that “no report alleging in Hamas” has benefited from Supplies funded in the United StatesAccording to a presentation of slides of the results seen by Reuters.
A spokesperson for the State Department challenged the conclusions, saying that there is video evidence of Hamas looting help, but has not provided such videos. The spokesman also accused traditional humanitarian groups of covering “aid corruption”.
A spokesman for the White House, Anna Kelly, questioned the existence of the analysis, saying that no head of the State Department had seen him and that he was probably produced by a deep state agent “seeking to discredit the” humanitarian program “of President Donald Trump.
The conclusions were shared with the office of the Inspector General of the USAID and the officials of the State Department involved in the policy of the Middle East, said two familiar sources with the question and came as Disastrous food shortages were deepened in the devastated enclave.
Israel says he is committed to authorizing aid But must control him to prevent him from being stolen by Hamas, which he blamed for the crisis.
The United Nations World Food Program says Almost a quarter of the 2.1 million Gaza Palestinians face famine conditionsThousands of people suffer from acute malnutrition, and the World Health Organization and the Enclave doctors report the deceased from children and others.
The UN also estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people looking for food supplies, The majority near the militarized distribution sites of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)The new private aid group that uses an American for -lucrative logistics company led by a former CIA officer and American military veterans.
The study was conducted by the USAID USAID assistance (BHA), which was the largest assistance fund in Gaza before the Trump administration set all American foreign aid in January, end thousands of programs. He also started to dismantle USAID, whose functions were integrated into the State Department.
The analysis revealed that at least 44 of the 156 incidents where the aid supplies were reported stolen or lost were “either directly or indirectly” Due to Israeli military actionsAccording to information slides.
The Israeli army did not answer questions about these conclusions.
The study noted a limitation: because the Palestinians who receive aid cannot be verified, it was possible that supplies financed by the United States go to Hamas administrative officials, Islamist leaders in Gaza.
A familiar source with the study also warned that the absence of hassle -widespread aid diversion reports “does not mean that the diversion did not take place”.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli accounts. Nearly 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Israeli assault, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israel says Hamas diverts help
Israel, who controls access to Gaza, said Hamas steals UN food supplies and other organizations to be used to control the civilian population and increase its finances, in particular by increasing the prices of goods and returning them to civilians.
Asked about the USAID report, the Israeli army told Reuters that its allegations were based on intelligence reports that Hamas activists seized cargoes by “both secretly and openly” which bowed in emergency trucks.
These reports also show that Hamas has diverted up to 25% of assistance supplies to its fighters or sold them to civilians, said the Israeli army, adding that the GHF has ended the control of aid activists by distributing it directly to civilians.
Hamas denies allegations. A Hamas security official said that Israel had killed more than 800 police officers affiliated to Hamas, trying to protect aid vehicles and convoy channels. Their missions were coordinated with the UN
Reuters could not independently verify the affirmations of Hamas and Israel, which did not make public proof that activists systematically stole aid.
The GHF also accuses the massive aid flight Hamas to defend its distribution model. The UN and other groups have rejected the calls of GHF, Israel and the United States to cooperate with the Foundation, saying that it violates international humanitarian principles of neutrality.
In response to a request for comments, GHF referred Reuters to an article in the Washington Post of July 2 which cited an unidentified Gazan and anonymous Israeli officials saying that Hamas took advantage of sales and the taxation of crushed humanitarian aid.
Aid groups required to report losses
The 156 flight or loss reports of supplies examined by BHA were deposited by United Nations agencies and other humanitarian groups working in Gaza as a condition for receiving American aid funds.
The second source familiar with the case indicated that after receiving reports of flights or losses funded by the United States, USAID staff followed partner organizations to try to determine if there was an involvement of Hamas.
These organizations “redirect or stop” help distributions if they learned that Hamas was nearby, said the source.
Help organizations working in Gaza are also required to control their staff, subcontractors and suppliers for links with extremist groups before receiving American funds, a condition that the State Department has given up the approval of $ 30 million for the GHF last month.
The presentation of slides noted that the USAID partners tended to overwrite the hijacking of aid and theft by groups sanctioned or designated by the United States as foreign terrorist organizations – such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic jihad – because they want to avoid losing American funds.
Of the 156 incidents of loss or theft reported, 63 were allocated to unknown authors, 35 to armed actors, 25 to unarmed persons, 11 directly to Israeli military action, 11 to corrupt subcontractors, five to help the staff of the group “engage in corrupt activities” and six to “others”, a category that took into account “stolen sponsorships in unknown circumstances”.
Armed actors “included gangs and other various people who may have had weapons,” said a slide. Another slide said that “an examination of the 156 incidents found no affiliation with” foreign terrorist organizations designated by the United States, of which Hamas is one.
“The majority of incidents could not be definitively attributed to a specific player,” said another slide. “Partners have often discovered largely that the products had been stolen in transit without identifying the aggressor.”
It has been possible that there have been classified intelligence reports on Hamas help flights, but BHA’s staff lost access to classified systems in the dismantling of the USAID, said a slide.
However, a familiar source with American intelligence assessments told Reuters that they did not know any American intelligence report detailing Hamas’ hijackings and that Washington was based on Israeli reports.
The BHA analysis revealed that the Israeli army “provoked directly or indirectly” a total of 44 incidents in which aid financed by the United States has been lost or stolen. These included the 11 allocated to direct Israeli military actions, such as air strikes or orders to the Palestinians to evacuate the areas of the enclave torn by the war.
The losses indirectly attributed to the Israeli soldiers included cases where they forced aid groups to use the delivery routes with high risks of flight or looting, ignoring the requests for alternative tracks, the analysis said.