Republican lawmakers are investigating whether U.S. aid for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank has made its way into the hands of Hamas, which the United States has designated a terrorist organization.
According to records obtained by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) cut its funding for the Palestinian regions from about $286 million in fiscal 2017 to about $18 million in fiscal 2020. Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, USAID also discontinued its funding support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.
After President Joe Biden took office in 2021, USAID reversed the trend, and foreign aid for the Palestinian regions began to grow once again. But the renewed funding wasn’t without its problems. According to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, a 2021 draft memo by the U.S. State Department raised concern that Hamas and other U.S.-designated terrorist organizations could stand to gain from this renewed U.S. aid spending.
“Due to its overall strength and level of control over Gaza, we assess there is a high risk Hamas could potentially derive indirect, unintentional benefit from U.S. assistance to Gaza. There is less but still some risk U.S. assistance would benefit other designated groups,” the 2021 draft memo reads.
The House Oversight Committee reiterated the concerns about USAID spending after Hamas terrorists breached the Israel–Gaza barrier on Oct. 7, killed hundreds of people, and took about 200 hostages back to Gaza.
“The scale and complexity of the barbaric Hamas atrocities that commenced on October 7th in Israel make it clear that significant financial resources were used for these attacks,” the letter reads.
“Public reports state that the Islamic Republic of Iran provides Hamas with direct funding, amounting to tens of millions annually. We also know that the Biden Administration dramatically increased funding to Gaza and the West Bank and on October 18th, he publicly announced an additional $100 million in U.S. aid to the area. It is vital to fully account for U.S. funds intended for humanitarian purposes to ensure they do not directly or indirectly fund terrorism.”
The Oversight Committee Republicans called on USAID to turn over their relevant documents by Nov. 7.
In an emailed response to an NTD News request for comment, a USAID spokesperson didn’t specifically address the House Republicans’ investigative efforts or the 2021 documents they cited but stressed that the agency remains committed to ensuring that U.S. humanitarian aid in Gaza and the West Bank goes to its intended purposes.
Republicans Investigating Whether Hamas Used US Weapons
Mr. Comer and Ms. Greene described the M4A1 as having been “specially designed for U.S. Special Operations Forces.” The M4 carbine and its subvariants such as the M4A1 do indeed owe their origins to U.S. military weapons contracts going back decades, but the M4 rifles have since been adopted by a variety of other countries, including Israel and the now-defunct U.S.-backed Afghan government.
M4 rifles may have found their way to Hamas from stockpiles U.S. forces left behind as they withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. Mr. Comer and Ms. Greene also referred to a June Newsweek report raising the possibility that weapons the United States has sent to Ukraine could have made their way to Iran and then Hamas after having been captured by Russian troops or resold by Ukrainian arms smugglers.
