#ngo monitor

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, May 2025. (@Keir_Starmer/X)

It’s Sunday, May 25, and the British government is knowingly sending millions of pounds to Hamas. That’s according to an astonishing investigation aired last night on Channel 12, in partnership with NGO Monitor.

There’s a lot to unpack, but I’ll try highlight the main findings.

Most damning is a British Consulate-General in Jerusalem document obtained by NGO Monitor. Written in November 2022, the document discusses, amongst other things, British financial assistance for the Gazan population via UNICEF from 2022 until 2026. It says the following:

“The risks to the success of the programme are moderate, with major risks of actual or perceived diversion of humanitarian aid.”

It highlighted the risk of “direct or indirect diversion of aid to the de facto authorities in Gaza and/or other terrorist groups. Cash cannot be tracked once withdrawn from the ATM. There are reputational and fiduciary risks around actual or perceived links of UK aid with supporting terrorist groups.” 

And here’s the worst part: “The cash assistance component will be implemented in coordination with the Ministry of Social Development MoSD. The MoSD in Gaza is affiliated with the de facto authorities and thus UK Aid can be linked directly or indirectly with supporting the de facto authority (Hamas) in Gaza which is part of a proscribed group.”

In other words, as NGO Monitor’s Anne Herzberg put it, “a Hamas-controlled entity was an integral partner in determining how cash assistance provided by the UK government to UNICEF would be distributed in Gaza.”

Ok, but maybe London changed its policy after October 7? Well, in March 2024, UNICEF wrote that it “maintained and strengthened the partnership with the MoSD,” adding in November that “this humanitarian cash transfer program in the Gaza Strip is supported by the European Union, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).”

And how much money are we talking about? Citing the UN Financial Tracking System, NGO Monitor wrote that “in 2024, the UK provided UNICEF with approximately $23.1 million for West Bank and Gaza operations.”

And yet, at the same time that Britain is knowingly sending millions of pounds to Hamas, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is busy condemning Israel for the war in Gaza, suspending free trade talks with Jerusalem, and sanctioning Israeli citizens.

Instead of lecturing Israel, Mr. Starmer would do well to reflect on his own government’s contribution to the war—and to the terrorists who started it.

by Alana Goodman

Human Rights Watch, an anti-Israel nonprofit funded by George Soros and the Ford Foundation, relied on staffers linked to Islamist terrorist groups to produce research on "Israel and Palestine," according to a new watchdog report.

One HRW staff researcher on "Israel and Palestine" issues, Milena Ansari, worked for an Israeli-designated terrorist group associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the report from Israeli watchdog NGO Monitor found. HRW also relied on a Lebanese researcher prominently quoted in one of its recent reports, Mahdi Sadeq, who is an open supporter of Hezbollah and works for an organization tied to the terror group.

The news comes as left-leaning U.S. foundations—including Soros’s Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund—pour millions of dollars into HRW, which in turn produces reports that often accuse Israel of war crimes. Anti-Israel lawmakers on the left, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), routinely cite those reports.

NGO Monitor said HRW’s reliance on Ansar and Sadeq is the latest indication of the group's extreme bias against Israel.

"HRW ‘reports’ continue the 25-year practice of citing propagandists and terror affiliates as expert sources," NGO Monitor president Gerald Steinberg told the Washington Free Beacon.

"Mahdi Sadeq is a clear Hezbollah supporter, and Milena Ansari worked with an NGO linked to the PFLP terror organization before employment at HRW. HRW's false accusations against Israel have exploited the facade of research to push an agenda of demonization."

The NGO Monitor report, shared with the Free Beacon, details those terror ties.

Milena Ansari, who serves as HRW’s "Israel and Palestine Assistant Researcher," previously worked as the international advocacy officer for the Palestinian nonprofit Addameer from April 2021 until November 2023, according to the report.

The Israeli Defense Ministry designated Addameer as a terrorist organization in 2021, saying it "operates as an arm" for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

by David Isaac

Two Hamas documents found by Israeli forces in Gaza indicate that international organizations such as the Red Cross and Doctors without Borders are well aware of the presence of Hamas in the Gaza Strip’s medical facilities despite obfuscating or outright denying it publicly, NGO Monitor revealed on Wednesday.

The internal Hamas memos were among a cache of documents declassified by the Israel Defense Forces. NGO Monitor translated the Arabic-language documents into English and released them to the public.

“While repeatedly echoing Hamas allegations and condemning Israel’s operations to end the exploitation of hospitals for terror, these groups clearly knew that Hamas exploited these facilities and chose to remain silent,” said Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. 

The documents, dated February and March 2020, not only show Hamas’s deliberate strategy of placing its fighters, leaders and terror infrastructure inside hospitals in Gaza, but reveal that NGOs worked right next to them, in at least one case in an adjoining office.

“The [International Committee of the] Red Cross chose a wing in Al-Shifa medical complex that is adjacent to the [Hamas] movement offices,” notes the February 2020 document.

The memo also notes that the French branch of Doctors Without Borders “chose the only room in Abu Yousef El-Najar Hospital that has a (safe) communication landline.”

The Hamas documents explicitly state the terror group’s position that medical facilities are not neutral spaces, but a critical part of its infrastructure.

“Furthermore, these health facilities are a place of gathering for numerous leaders of the [Hamas] movement and the government during times of escalation,” the February memo said.

by Gerald M. Steinberg

Beyond a few anecdotes, the journalists make no attempt to assess MSF’s actual contribution, an omission which is surely not accidental. According to data published by the Israeli agency coordinating aid (COGAT), MSF operates only five clinics or medical points in Gaza out of roughly 220 medical facilities. Even assuming MSF performs admirably in its limited footprint, calling it “essential” to Gaza’s medical system is clearly exaggerated. If MSF were to disappear tomorrow, Gaza’s medical disaster (the consequence of 18 years of the Hamas regime’s misrule compounded by the October 7 atrocities) would not meaningfully change.

More troubling are the Times’ blatant omissions and distortions. Israel’s new NGO registration requirements did not emerge from bureaucratic caprice, or even in response to MSF’s pattern of exploiting its “humanitarian mission” to act as an activist group intent on demonizing Israel.

Rather, the rules emerged from a long record of abuses, including terrorist infiltration of international NGOs in Gaza. The Times mentions, almost in passing, that one MSF employee from Gaza killed in 2024 was a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad involved in rocket production. It presents this as an unfortunate aberration.

It is not. Multiple reports – by NGO Monitor and by the Israeli government – document a pattern of MSF staff and affiliates with ties to terrorist organizations, alongside shamefully lax vetting procedures. MSF did not merely hire one bad apple – it planted a poison tree. This highlights the root of its organizational culture, the lack of oversight, and the absence of any accountability.

by  Shachar Kleiman

According to NGO Monitor, the "Open Society Institute" also funded both "Al-Haq" and "Al-Mezan" branches. Between 2020 and 2023, it provided $800,000 to "Al-Haq," and from 2023 to 2025, transferred $250,000 to "Al-Haq Europe." Al-Mezan received foundation grants exceeding half a million dollars between 2021 and 2024. This foundation operates in the US with expenses totaling $1.7 billion in 2023, the last reported tax year.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund represents another funding source, having transferred $100,000 to DCI-P between 2020-2022, alongside substantial grants to anti-Israeli campus organizations. The New York Post reported that since 2018, the fund has transferred over $2.6 million directly or indirectly to at least six anti-Israeli organizations, some of which openly celebrated the October 7 attacks.

"The Palestinian Center for Human Rights" also receives support from Grassroots International, which identifies it as a long-term partner, though specific funding amounts remain undisclosed.

The "Culture of Resistance Network" serves as an additional funding source, transferring money to DCI-P, "Al-Haq," and Al-Mezan. This network claims to support culture and oppose war. It also funds the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) – a designated terrorist organization in Israel that Americans define as "the agricultural front of the Popular Front." A Dutch government study found dozens of UAWC employees belong to the Popular Front. The organization's financial managers are currently detained for involvement in the murder of Rina Shnerb in the Danny Spring attack.

Despite these connections, the research shows US-based financial services company Stripe, Inc. facilitates donation transfers to "Al-Haq Europe" and the Hind Rajab Foundation.

Newly obtained internal Hamas documents demonstrate that close cooperation between the UK government and Hamas took place before the group was designated and continued afterwards, in apparent contravention of British policies. They show that UK officials held meetings with Hamas ministries in Gaza. Representatives of UK-funded NGOs also met with Hamas to discuss their funding status.

In November 2021, the United Kingdom designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. Despite repeated public assurances by the UK government that the designation would preclude cooperation with Hamas – as well as a longstanding policy of non-contact, documents by a Hamas security agency indicate otherwise. The documents, dated January and February 2022, point to sustained dialogue and operational coordination between a UK diplomatic representative and Hamas-controlled security institutions, as well as between UK-funded NGOs and the Hamas government.

These newly revealed documents raise damning questions about UK government denials regarding a May 2025 NGO Monitor report on a UK government aid program, in conjunction with UNICEF, that cooperated closely with Hamas-led bodies in Gaza. 

Documents from the Gaza Interior Security Mechanism

NGO Monitor has obtained documents originating with the Gaza Interior Security Mechanism (ISM), an official organ under the Hamas Ministry of Interior and National Security (MoINS – see Appendix for additional details on the MoINS and its Hamas leadership). The documents have been declassified by the Israeli army and can be accessed by the public. 

The Interior Security Mechanism is responsible for uncovering, preventing, and investigating crimes that threaten national security and government bodies. It combats espionage, provides protection and security for officials and leaders, and responds to what Hamas sees as external threats to its security, including political opposition. It is also responsible for operating informants and defending against cyber attacks. 

Document 1: Meeting Between British Consulate in Gaza and ISM – February 2022

According to a February 2022 internal memo submitted by the ISM’s Department of Western Associations to the director of the Branch of Foreign Associations, the organ supervising international NGOs and enforcing Hamas policies on NGOs in Gaza, following the 2021 designation of Hamas by the UK, ISM personnel held a meeting with a representative of the British Consulate in Gaza.1 The meeting focused on UK-funded NGOs working in Gaza and the implications of the designation. According to the document, the British Consulate had closed its offices for one week, presumably to keep up the appearance of complying with the designation. Additionally, according to the document, the Gaza-based representative contacted the UK Consulate in Jerusalem, stressing the need to “continue the aid and visitation to the Gaza Strip” (all translations by NGO Monitor).

According to the document, the Consulate representative reassured ISM regarding UK funding, claiming, “the resolution of the UK to ban Hamas and designate it as a terror group shall not impact the projects funded by the UK government,” and “the resolution to ban Hamas was taken by the Ministry of Interior [i.e. the British Home Office] and not by the British Foreign Ministry [FCDO]” (emphasis added) – implying that the designation  would not change UK relations with Hamas in Gaza.

by Hank Berrien

A bombshell new report states that the British government is knowingly sending millions of pounds to the terrorist group Hamas.

NGO Monitor obtained a British Consulate-General in Jerusalem (BCGJ) document dated November 2022 with a plan for “UK Humanitarian Support in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

The document notes distribution of “multi-purpose cash” assistance in Gaza.  The document states, “The cash assistance component will be implemented in coordination with the Ministry of Social Development MoSD. … The MoSD in Gaza is affiliated with the de facto authorities and thus UK Aid can be linked directly or indirectly with supporting the de factor [sic] authority (Hamas) in Gaza which is part of a proscribed group.”

“Since taking control of Gaza in 2007, Hamas has employed a number of methods to divert international aid,” NGO Monitor wrote. “By exploiting monies and material intended for humanitarian purposes, the terrorist organization expanded its military infrastructure, paid salaries, and cemented its rule. More disturbingly, this aid diversion was central in Hamas’ preparations for the October 7 massacre, including the construction of tunnels and other military installations, and stockpiling supplies and resources.”

“Hamas has exercised effective control over the MoSD in Gaza for several years. In April 2019, Hamas appointed a politburo member, Ghazi Hamad, to lead the Ministry,” NGO Monitor notes. “As of July 2024, Hamas leader and politburo member, Ghazi Hamad, heads the Gaza branch of the MoSd. … In November 2024, the US Treasury Department designated Hamad, labeling him a “senior Hamas official. … In an October 24, 2023 interview on Lebanese television, Hamad hailed the October 7th massacre.”

“A Hamas-controlled entity was an integral partner in determining how cash assistance provided by the UK government to UNICEF would be distributed in Gaza,” NGO Monitor’s Anne Herzberg explained.

Israeli journalist Amit Segal noted after reading the report that the funding appears to have continued after the Hamas terrorist offensive.

“But maybe London changed its policy after October 7?“ Segal asked rhetorically. “Well, in March 2024, UNICEF wrote that it ‘maintained and strengthened the partnership with the MoSD,’ adding in November that ‘this humanitarian cash transfer program in the Gaza Strip is supported by the European Union, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).’”

“Citing the UN Financial Tracking System, NGO Monitor wrote that ‘in 2024, the UK provided UNICEF with approximately $23.1 million for West Bank and Gaza operations,’” Segal pointed out, adding, “And yet, at the same time that Britain is knowingly sending millions of pounds to Hamas, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is busy condemning Israel for the war in Gaza.”