Hamas members secure the area as Egyptian workers accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) search for the remains of the last Israeli hostage in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City on December 8, 2025.
Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP
Brussels claims the internal documents obtained by NGO Monitor lack ‘substantiated evidence’.
The European Commission rejects claims that Hamas infiltrated EU-funded NGOs operating in Gaza, one spokesperson told Brussels Signal on Tuesday, December 9th. The Commission’s representative argued that Brussels thinks that the available reports lack substantiated evidence and that existing safeguards are functioning as intended.
The spokesperson said that the Commission was reviewing the matter and seeking additional clarifications. “Let us be very clear: Our support is designed to benefit the people of Gaza only. The EU does not finance terrorism,” the spokesperson stated.
Addressing the question of alleged Hamas infiltration, the unnamed representative noted: “The Commission does not possess any substantiated information that would highlight that any of our partner is not complying with EU standards and due diligence. If there will be clear evidence, the Commission will take all the appropriate measures.”
Responding to the Commission’s position, Olga Deutsch, Vice-President of NGO Monitor, offered a sharply different assessment. “Unfortunately, the response from Europe’s governmental and organisational establishment has been to issue broad denials rather than to look inward and resolve to do better,” she said. She argued that Hamas’ internal documents “relate in detail that European NGOs, backed by hundreds of millions of euros of taxpayer funds, co-operated with proscribed terrorist groups and their affiliates in Gaza.”
On December 3rd, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) declassified internal Hamas documents and shared them with NGO Monitor. The documents indicated that Hamas required EU-funded NGOs in Gaza to coordinate with designated liaisons, ensuring close oversight of their activities.
Deutsch further contended: “Leading humanitarian organisations employed Hamas terrorists, funneled money to Hamas beneficiaries and stood idly by as Hamas rewrote the terms of their Gaza operations.” She questioned the Commission’s position, saying: “If this isn’t ‘substantiated information’ delineating horrific problems with the Commission’s ‘rigorous safeguards’ I don’t know what is.”
According to NGO Monitor’s analysis of the Hamas documents, the group’s Interior Security Mechanism placed “guarantors”— described as Hamas loyalists— in NGO leadership roles, including positions such as directors and board chairs, to monitor and influence their operations.
The documents included reference to an EU-funded Oxfam programme valued at €800,000, intended for a water irrigation project in a sensitive border zone. According to the Hamas materials, the project was used for military purposes, providing tactical cover for “resistance activities” through fruit tree plantations.
Zolta Győri is a journalist at europeanconservative.com.
