EXCLUSIVE — A little-known United Nations agency funded by the Trump administration has worked with Hamas to provide Gaza aid supplies, a report obtained by the Washington Examiner reveals.The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs cooperated with the Hamas-linked Palestinian Ministry of Social Development from at least 2021 to 2025, according to records gathered and translated by the Israeli watchdog group NGO Monitor. Public materials and Hamas documents show the terrorist group meddling in OCHA programs to control aid distribution and conceal identities of members who could be recipients, NGO Monitor found.
“To correct this, the State Department should immediately freeze [American] funding pending the results of a detailed and independent audit of OCHA’s activities and funding in Gaza covering at least the past five years,” NGO Monitor founder and president Gerald Steinberg told the Washington Examiner. “The cash assistance programs that rely on Hamas-controlled mechanisms for distribution of funds must be halted, accompanied by full transparency regarding partner NGOs and entities involved in determining beneficiaries. These long-overdue measures will prevent further transfer of U.S. taxpayer dollars into the coffers of terrorists.”The U.N. has increasingly sparked controversy since Hamas’s October 2023 massacre over terrorist ties. Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden put freezes on federal funding for the U.N. Relief Works Agency after Israel accused it of hiring Hamas members involved in the attacks. A U.S. inspector general’s office identified at least 100 such UNRWA employees in June and referred them for suspension or removal.However, OCHA has avoided the same scrutiny despite Israel accusing it in July 2025 of having Hamas connections. The State Department has announced $3.8 billion in humanitarian funds for the agency since December, promising better “oversight and accountability measures” than past U.N. programs. “Over time, the Department of State expects all U.S. funding of U.N. humanitarian work to be channeled through OCHA pooled fund vehicles,” the department said in September.OCHA and the State Department did not provide comment when the Washington Examiner reached out. U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher responded to Israel in July by saying the U.N.’s work requires engaging with both sides in a war and that its “contacts with Hamas have also supported hostage releases,” Reuters reported.‘The workers in the resistance’
