US-funded NGO Aid Benefiting Hamas: Mercy Corps and ANERA Operations in Gaza
Since taking control of Gaza in 2007, Hamas has employed a number of methods to divert international aid. By exploiting monies and material intended for humanitarian purposes, the terrorist organization expanded its military infrastructure, pay salaries, and cement its rule.
More disturbingly, this was central in Hamas’ preparations for the October 7th massacre, including the construction of tunnels and other military installations, and stockpiling supplies and resources. After thousands of terrorists invaded Israel and committed mass atrocities, Hamas continued to divert aid, creating and taking advantage of a black market.
As part of the aid diversion, Hamas gave lists of beneficiaries to the NGOs implementing cash-assistance and building projects. At least two US-funded organizations – Mercy Corps and American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) – appear to have closely coordinated with a Gaza-based ministry, run by a senior Hamas official identified by the US Treasury Department as previously responsible for part of Hamas’ smuggling operation.
(For more information, see testimony by NGO Monitor Director of Research Yona Schiffmiller to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, May 2024.)
US-funded projects
Mercy Corps and ANERA are US-registered 501c3s, funded by the US-government to provide humanitarian aid in Gaza in the years preceding the Hamas invasion. Many of their projects rely on close coordination with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Social Development (MoSD). This includes using lists of individuals and households in Gaza provided by the MoSD identifying beneficiaries for cash-assistance and building programs.
Mercy Corps
According to an April 27, 2023 USAID factsheet, “USAID/BHA [Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs] partner Mercy Corps supports the distribution of multipurpose cash assistance (MPCA)” in Gaza, with the Federal agency providing “$9 Million in dedicated USAID/BHA funding for MPCA activities in FY 2022” (emphasis added). This corresponds to funding data on the UN’s Financial Tracking Service (FTS), which also records $9 million from USAID-BHA to Mercy Corps for a Gaza cash-assistance program in 2022.
The UN’s description of the 2022 Mercy Corps Gaza project highlights the NGO’s reliance on the Hamas-controlled MoSD to identify beneficiaries:
- “Through unconditional cash assistance, this project will identify and select the most vulnerable HHs [households]…from the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) unserved waiting lists of Social Safety Net (SSN).” (emphases added)
- “Mercy Corps and partners will…identify, assess and verify selected vulnerable HHs [households] to receive cash assistance, monitor activities, and ensure full coordination and engagement with the MoSD, Ministry of Agriculture, the community and all other relevant stakeholders.” (emphasis added)
- “Mercy Corps will be the focal point of coordination with MoSD.” (emphasis added)
- “Identifying unserved or underserved, vulnerable HHs and FHHs [female heads of household] (Group 2) will be carried out by obtaining lists through the established partnership with the MoSD.” (emphasis added)
- “Mercy Corps and local partner NGOs will…assess and verify selected vulnerable HHs to receive cash assistance, monitor activities, and ensure full coordination and engagement with the line ministries (Ministry of Social Development [MoSD], and Ministry of Agriculture).” (emphasis added)
According to usaspending.gov – an official website tracking Federal spending – USAID has earmarked $36.7 million for Mercy Corps projects in the West Bank and Gaza since 2021, beyond the $9 million project in 2022.
American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA)
ANERA is a longtime USAID partner in Gaza and has engaged in multiple MoSD-related projects in the area in recent years. It is unclear if the US government has funded any of the ANERA programs that rely on the MoSD.
According to usaspending.gov, USAID has earmarked to ANERA $12.5 million for 2024-2029 Gaza medical assistance. Previously, USAID provided $79.2 million to ANERA in 2013-2022 for “a Palestinian Community Infrastructure Development (PCID) Program.”
Additionally, the State Department is providing $209,099 to ANERA for a 2024-2025 project. According to usaspending.gov, the program’s description is hidden, “Masked for PII [personally identifiable information] Purposes” (emphasis added).
The UN description of a 2023 building project in Gaza highlights ANERA’s close coordination with the MoSD:
- “Anera will finalize and approved [sic] the selection of beneficiaries on the standard shelter cluster criteria in coordination with the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) and the Ministry of Public Works and Housing (MoPWH).” (emphasis added)
- “Anera will select beneficiaries in coordination with the Shelter Cluster, the MoSD, and the MoPWH.” (emphasis added)
Additionally, in November 2021, ANERA “launched its Women Can women’s empowerment program in Gaza.” According to a press release, “Anera selects the women according to predefined criteria in coordination with the Ministry of Social Development and local organizations that serve women.” (emphasis added)
Decreased Transparency
While the US has increased funding to Gaza since the Hamas-orchestrated October 7th massacre, transparency has decreased.
Based on usaspending.gov, USAID and the State Department have allocated or provided approximately $200 million to “miscellaneous foreign awardees” operating in the West Bank and Gaza in 2024. The organizations receiving this US taxpayer support – or their local partners – are not identified.
As such, it is difficult to ascertain the extent of US taxpayer-funds currently at risk of terrorist diversion in Gaza.
(For more information, see NGO Monitor’s report, “USG Funding to Gaza and WB in 2024: More Money, Less Transparency”)
Hamas Control over the Ministry of Social Development
Hamas has exercised effective control over the MoSD in Gaza for several years. In April 2019, Hamas appointed politburo member, Ghazi Hamad, to lead the Ministry.
Ghazi Hamad
As of July 2024, Hamas leader and politburo member, Ghazi Hamad, headed the Gaza branch of the MoSd.

Ghazi Hamad, (3rd from right) meeting with officials from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in November 2021
- In November 2024, the Treasury Department designated Hamad, labeling him a “senior Hamas official[].” The announcement added, “Hamad previously served as a Hamas senior official overseeing border crossings at Gaza. While these border crossings were one of the primary ways Hamas smuggled weapons into Gaza, these crossings were also used to smuggle the construction equipment and materials Hamas needed to build an extensive tunnel network they intentionally interspersed among Palestinian civilians.”
- In an October 24, 2023 interview on Lebanese television, Hamad hailed the October 7th massacre:
- “Israel is a state that has no place on our land. We must eliminate this state because it is truly a security, military and political catastrophe for the Arab and Islamic nation. It must end.”
- When asked if he seeks “the annihilation of Israel,” Hamad responded, “Of course.”
- “We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do it twice and three times. The Al-Aqsa Flood [Hamas’ name for the October 7th massacre] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth…On October 7th, October 10th, October one-millionth, everything we do is justified.”

Ghazi Hamad, pictured with the Hamas flag, in an October 31, 2023 interview with the Associated Press
Mohammed Al-Araeer
Other high-ranking MoSD officials have praised Hamas leaders and terrorism against Israeli civilians.
In at least November 2019-January 2021, Mohammed Al-Araeer served as MoSD’s General Director of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation and later, at least in March 2022–March 2023, MoSD’s Director General of Family and Childhood Affairs. He has made numerous pro-terror statements:
- On June 20, 2023, a Hamas cell murdered four Israeli civilians in a shooting. Al-Araeer tweeted a photo of one of the gunmen, writing, “May Allah… grant you the highest ranks in paradise.”
- On January 28, 2023, Al-Araeer praised two gunmen who carried out separate shootings in Jerusalem on January 27 and 28, murdering seven Israeli civilians and wounding several others. He tweeted, “In the evening we had a rebellion and in the morning we had a rebellion. Blessed be the two rebels and blessed be the people of Jerusalem. Watch out for more [attacks], so help me Allah.”
- On November 14, 2022, Al-Araeer tweeted a poster of Ahmed Al-Jabari, the late commander of Hamas’ Izzadeen Al-Qassem Brigades: “The tenth anniversary of his martyrdom is an anniversary in which the resistance’s spirit is revived and hope spreads within the [Islamic] nation for the coming liberation. #The_anniversary_of_the_general…”

Al-Araeer tweeted a poster of senior Hamas military figure Al-Jabari, commemorating the anniversary of his death as the day that “the resistance’s spirit is revived and hope spreads within the nation.”
- On November 23, 2022, Palestinian terrorists detonated two explosive devices at two bus stops in Jerusalem, murdering two Israeli civilians. Al-Araeer shared a poster celebrating the attack and wrote, “#The_Jerusalem_operation today is a special blow against the occupation and its security apparatus…This shows the resistance’s popular and general status, coupled with a powerful organizational foundation for these blessed operations.”

Al-Araeer hailed a terrorist attack, calling it “a blessed operation,” and shared a poster glorifying the attack.
- In separate shootings on October 9 and October 19, 2022, Udai Tamimi killed an Israeli soldier and wounded civilians. On October 20, 2022, Al-Araeer tweeted a poster hailing Tamimi, labeling him “a hero from Palestine.” Al-Araeer wrote, “Uadi Tamimi has made two legendary scenes, the Shuafat operation scene and the scene of his martyrdom [in his second attack]. These two scenes have an extremely great impact in recruiting and uniting. We shall feel quickly their results by the hands of Palestinian youth who remain firm in the will to complete the path of holy fighting.”
PA Statements on Hamas Control of MoSD
Several PA statements clearly identify Hamas as controlling the Gaza MoSD and its role in obscuring Hamas’ exploitation of the humanitarian sector:
- On May 3, 2020, the PA-controlled Ramallah MoSD complained that “Hamas, which controls by force the ministry’s [Gaza] offices, withdrew from the agreement that established that the ministry’s legitimate civil servants would be able to pursue their tasks and serve poor and marginalized sectors with fairness, transparency and with no discrimination.” PA Minister Al-Deek noted, “Considering this state of affairs, and what Hamas has done, it is fully responsible for the social sector, in all its aspects and for all social groups.” (emphases added)
- On September 25, 2019, the PA-controlled Ramallah MoSD stated, “any dealings with what is so called the ministry of development in Gaza is really cooperating and dealing with the Hamas movement. The MoSD has expressed its bewilderment from the use of the term ‘the ministry of social development’ by some Arab states [to describe the Gaza branch] in order to cover up the aid and direct dealings with the Hamas movement.” (emphasis added)
- According to an August 2019 report, Ahmed Majdalani, a PA official, claimed in reference to MoSD operations in Gaza that “the ministry in Gaza is controlled by Hamas, which appointed Ghazi Hamad to lead it.”