How Brussels Unwittingly Bankrolls Hamas

Along with the publication of supporting documentation, Euractiv revealed today that Hamas managed to infiltrate EU-funded NGOs in Gaza. Internal Hamas documents show that the group, which is designated as a terrorist organisation in the European Union, was monitoring the work of non-governmental organisations in Gaza through Hamas-approved liaison officers. The files, dated between 2018 and 2022, were found by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and expose that European NGOs were unknowingly working with Hamas to a much greater extent than anyone had expected. 

According to researchers from NGO Monitor, Hamas relied on “guarantors”—local Gazans who acted as go-betweens with NGOs. These guarantors were frequently placed in senior roles inside the organisations, including as directors or heads of the board. They included members of Hamas as well as individuals who were sympathisers or “affiliated with Hamas.” One such affiliate was a member of the EU-funded Italian humanitarian NGO Cesvi. Similarly, the documents describe the administrative director of the International Medical Corps (IMC), a global non-profit, as a Hamas member with the rank of captain. One document from late 2022 makes the aims of this abundantly clear, stating that these individuals could be “exploited for security purposes in order to infiltrate foreign associations, their foreign senior personnel, and their movements.” This gave Hamas deep insight into how these organisations operated, and the terror group was able to use this knowledge to support its military activities. 

A 2021 Hamas report claimed that Oxfam had worked with a local Hamas-linked group on an EU-funded irrigation project for fruit trees in a “border area” considered “security sensitive.” The report asserted that these fruit trees “are known to be a cover for resistance activities in border areas” and argued that the project would support Hamas’ military goals. NGO Monitor researchers said Hamas “ensured this Oxfam project was implemented in a manner consistent with maintaining and concealing tactically advantageous positions for its forces.” Oxfam, responding to Euractiv, insisted it “takes the risk of aid diversion extremely seriously in Gaza as we do in all areas of our operations globally,” and stressed that “Oxfam has no links to Hamas, or any other Palestinian armed groups. Hamas does not control, direct, or influence our programming work. No Oxfam funding goes to Hamas, or any other Palestinian armed groups.”

Yet, according to Olga Deutsch, Vice President of NGO Monitor, these newly discovered documents tell a very different story. They detail Hamas’s “formal network of monitoring, controlling, and influencing NGO activity. Yet never once did NGOs say anything about this Hamas infiltration and repression.” 

What these files expose is not a few unfortunate lapses in oversight, but a structural lie at the heart of the humanitarian space in Gaza. Western governments and NGOs have spent years insisting that aid work there is somehow insulated from Hamas’s rule. The Hamas documents show the opposite. The NGO sector was, in fact, understood by the terror group as a strategic asset to be penetrated and turned to its own ends. 

This isn’t even the first time that Europe has been confronted with evidence that its main partners in Gaza are compromised. In the case of UNRWA, Brussels flinched only briefly before turning the tap back on. In January 2024, Israel accused a dozen UNRWA employees of involvement in the October 7th, 2023, massacre. For years before that, Israel had been sending out warnings that the agency that dominates education and welfare provision in Gaza was heavily influenced by Hamas—from rockets discovered in or near UNRWA schools during past conflicts, to militants using its facilities for cover, to teaching materials that erase Israel and glorify “resistance” and “martyrs” in the classroom. In response to the latest revelations, a string of donor states—including Germany, France, and Italy—announced they were suspending or reviewing their contributions. The European Commission said it would “review” its own payments and withhold new money until at least the end of February 2024. Yet by March, the Commission had decided to proceed with an initial €50 million transfer to the agency and to keep in place the full €82 million it had earmarked for UNRWA in 2024.

Nor is Gaza the only place where EU money has ended up entangled with Islamist networks. Brussels has been inadvertently financing groups that openly glorify Hamas leaders. Al Sharq Youth, the youth section of the Turkish Al Sharq Forum, received more than €100,000 in EU funds between 2021 and 2023 from the European Commission via Erasmus+. In August last year, the group invited followers to a “final tribute” to Ismail Haniyeh, describing the Hamas chief as a “martyr” after his killing. Parent organisation Al Sharq Forum researches political Islam, and its training centre is headed by Mohammad Affan, who has described himself as a former Muslim Brotherhood member who left the movement because it was “not subtle enough” politically. None of this, it seemed, was enough to deter EU funding. 

It’s frightening how easily Islamists and adjacent organisations manage to get their hands on EU funds. In 2023, it was revealed that Islamic Relief Germany was receiving €58,640 under Erasmus+ for an “inclusion” project, even though Israel banned its parent network in 2014 as part of Hamas’s funding apparatus. The UAE has also designated Islamic Relief a terrorist organisation, and the German government has warned of “significant personnel ties” to the Muslim Brotherhood. In fact, between 2007 and 2020, the European Commission either directly or indirectly channelled more than €52 million to organisations with alleged Brotherhood links, including €36.2 million to Islamic Relief Worldwide, over €5 million to Islamic Relief France, and more than €7 million to the European Network Against Racism.

The EU appears all too willing to keep sweeping these scandals under the rug. It seems largely unconcerned that millions of taxpayer euros are being spent on militant terrorist groups like Hamas, or on Islamist organisations that seek to impose political Islam on Europe. Nothing short of a complete overhaul and purge of these charities and NGOs will allow Europe to send aid that helps needy Gazans without also funding terrorism. Until then, every euro is a liability.