On October 13,2024, a video was circulated of a Hezbollah weapons cache seized by the IDF in Lebanon. Among the items displayed was a package bearing the logos of USAID and the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP).

Screenshot of video posted by “@CptReality,” October 13, 2024

Since December 2023, the US has provided over $80 million to the WFP for its Lebanon operations.

NGO Monitor has repeatedly warned of the dangers of aid diversion by terrorist organizations – including in Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen. In May 17, 2024 testimony to a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, NGO Monitor Director of Research Yona Schiffmiller stated, “Rigorous vetting is required to ensure that US assistance aligns with American policy goals and values, and to guarantee that taxpayer funds are not provided to terror-linked actors, or to those that glorify violence and espouse antisemitism.”

As described in multiple NGO Monitor reports, humanitarian agencies, such as WFP, have made statements opposing vital anti-terror vetting of beneficiaries, asserting that this would infringe on “humanitarian principles.”

For instance, In a 2021 WFP document, Samer Abdel Jaber, “Country Director, WFP Palestine,” claimed: Humanitarian support is separate from political, economic, military or any other objectives. That’s why independence is one of the four principles that are fundamental to humanitarian action. What does this actually mean on the ground? For WFP and the people we serve, it means that no matter what else is happening in any country – political, military or otherwise – vital humanitarian operations are run independently of any other consideration.

 In the same document, another WFP official stated:

For example, in war-torn areas we strive to reach all people in need, regardless of the side of the conflict they are on. And we shall do everything in our power to deliver food to those most in distress, without discriminating by ethnic origin, nationality, political opinion, gender, race or religion.