An evaluation compiled by USAID officers analyzing greater than 150 reported incidents involving the theft or lack of U.S.-funded humanitarian assist within the war-torn Gaza Strip says it failed to search 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 usually interfered with assist distribution up to now — assertions it has used to justify its assist for the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and for measures undertaken by Israel to restrict the movement of help to neighboring Gaza by way of different pathways.
The GHF — with Israel’s approval and regardless of rejection from the United Nations — took over many of the assist distribution system in Gaza on Could 27, after an 11-week Israeli blockade on all provides from getting into the strip. Israel has lengthy accused Hamas of stealing assist offered by the U.N. — previously the primary 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 assist” by international nations “which might be anticipated to happen within the coming days.” This comes after a coalition of more 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 battle started, and final Could. It was compiled earlier than the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAID) — as soon as the world’s largest single donor of humanitarian assist — officially ceased independent operations on July 1. The Trump administration canceled greater than 80% of the company’s applications, 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 instances involving the lack of assist, the perpetrator couldn’t be definitively recognized.
Somoud Wahdan seems on the digital camera as she sits along with her little one in an space within the northern Gaza Strip, whereas ready for vans with humanitarian assist to reach, in Gaza Metropolis, Friday, July 25, 2025.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
The Israel Protection Forces denied the report in a press release to ABC Information, saying “not solely does the report ignore clear and express proof that Hamas exploits humanitarian assist to maintain its preventing capabilities, it goes as far as to criticize the IDF for routing selections made particularly to guard humanitarian employees and shipments.”
The IDF added that when it “directs assist deliveries alongside particular routes, it’s primarily based on the operational actuality and intelligence assessments, aimed toward safeguarding each the help and the humanitarian actors — exactly the problem the report claims will not be 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 known 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 limitless 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 assist corruption coverup,” the spokesperson stated. “Accessible intelligence confirms what’s mirrored in open-source info: that a good portion of non-GHF assist vans have been diverted, looted, stolen, or ‘self-distributed.'”
Regardless of this, the Trump administration — a staunch ally of Israel — has offered no proof of Hamas finishing up widespread assist diversion to this point.
The IDF stated it’s “making large efforts to allow the protected distribution of humanitarian assist below complicated operational circumstances.”
The continued Gaza battle 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.
