Document: European aid organizations collaborated with Hamas

Internal documents from Hamas show that the terrorist group carefully monitored international non-governmental organizations working in the Gaza Strip. They demanded that trusted contacts should work with the organizations, several of which receive direct EU funding.

The documents are dated between 2018 and 2022 and were found in the Gaza Strip by Israeli authorities during the war that Hamas initiated through the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. After the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) declassified the documents, researchers from the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor analyzed the material. They then shared the documents and their findings with Euractiv.

The documents are said to provide a unique insight into how the internal security mechanism ISM, a special unit within Hamas’ Ministry of the Interior, monitored and approved the projects carried out by non-governmental organizations in the Gaza Strip. They also suggest that European non-governmental organizations, albeit unwittingly, collaborated much closer with the terrorist group than previously believed.

According to NGO Monitor, Hamas used so-called ‘guarantors’ or Gazabors, who acted as a point of contact between Hamas and the respective non-governmental organizations. These individuals often held influential administrative positions within the organizations, such as director or board chairman.

While some of these individuals were also members of Hamas, others were described as trusted sympathizers or ‘affiliated with Hamas.’ The latter term was used to refer to a member of the Italian humanitarian non-governmental organization Cesvi, which the EU has funded.

A document from December 2022 lists personal details for several guarantors and indicates that these could be ‘exploited for security purposes to infiltrate foreign associations, their foreign senior staff, and their movements.’ The extensive monitoring of the guarantors also resulted in detailed descriptions of their religious behavior, attire, internet activity, and political beliefs.

Exploited for military activities

Another revelation from the documents is that Hamas had extensive knowledge of the internal workings of the organizations. In a report from 2020, Hamas noted that the offices of the :censored:6:cdd6bbaa89: non-profit organization International Medical Corps (IMC) were closed for a week when they refused to submit financial and administrative reports to the terrorist group. After the EU-funded non-governmental organization complied with Hamas’ orders, their offices were reopened. A document from December 2022 noted that the current administrative head of IMC is a member of the terrorist group and holds the rank of captain.

The documents also show that Hamas attempted to exploit the work of non-governmental organizations for its military activities. In a document dated June 16, 2021, Hamas noted that the organization Oxfam collaborated with a local Hamas-affiliated group to carry out an irrigation project for fruit trees, and the terrorist group claimed that the project would support their military goals.

According to Olga Deutsch, Vice President of NGO Monitor, the internal documents for the first time reveal Hamas’ infiltration and control over Gaza’s humanitarian ecosystem and ‘describe in detail their formal network for monitoring, controlling, and influencing the activities of non-governmental organizations.’

– Yet, non-governmental organizations have never said anything about this Hamas infiltration and oppression, she says.