NGO Monitor Reports Hamas Controls NGOs

Peloni

A new NGO Monitor report based on internal Hamas documents reveals a systematic effort by the terrorist group to infiltrate and control international aid organizations in Gaza. It explains that Hamas established a network of operatives, described as “guarantors”,  who were either members of Hamas or loyal to Hamas, and who were placed within major NGOs like Oxfam, Save the Children, and the Norwegian Refugee Council.  By doing so, these guarantors provided Hamas the means by which to monitor activities of the NGOs and influence decision making, while having the ability to access sensitive financial and administrative data within the relative organizations.  It also provided Hamas with the means by which to manipulate aid distribution by the NGOs.

The document goes on to expose Hamas having maintained detailed dossiers, the contents of which could be used to pressure the relative individuals into continued compliance with Hamas.  The report explains that those who showed any resistance faced being blackmailed or having their operations shut down, giving the example of the shutting down of the International Medical Corp back in 2020 until internal reports were finally handed over.  Notably, in some cases, NGOs were unknowingly working with Hamas-affiliated partners, while others were openly forced to change surveys in order to help obscure terrorist activities.

Critically, the report concludes that no NGO operates independently in Gaza and that they all function under a system of coercion, surveillance, and Hamas oversight, providing serious compromise to any presumed humanitarian neutrality by the NGOs while pursuing their duties.

The documents, dated 2018–2022, show Hamas exerted institutional control over continued humanitarian efforts while using surveillance, intimidation, and personal blackmail (such as threatening to expose private misconduct) to enforce compliance.  Despite all of this, most NGOs remained silent, citing Israeli restrictions as a convenient scapegoat for blame of operational challenges. Without proper vetting, the report warns that future reconstruction funding runs the obvious risk of being exposed to these same vulnerabilities.  

Read more here and the full report can be read at the link below:

Puppet Regime: Hamas’ Coercive Grip on Aid and NGO Operations in Gaza

or here:

https://ngo-monitor.org/pdf/NGOM_Guarantors2025.pdf