British taxpayer funds, earmarked for humanitarian aid in Gaza, may have passed through Hamas-controlled structures, according to a report on Israel’s Channel 12 over the weekend. The core of the allegation is not that the UK sought to support terrorism, but that its aid strategy operated in concert with the very machinery that sustains Hamas’s rule. If that proves accurate, what does it say about the integrity of our government’s foreign assistance and the sincerity of its professed commitment to international law?
A British Consulate-General policy plan warned that ‘UK Aid can be linked directly or indirectly with supporting the de facto authority (Hamas) in Gaza which is part of a proscribed group.’
At the centre of this controversy is the UK’s funding of a large-scale cash transfer programme in Gaza, implemented by Unicef, but coordinated – by Unicef’s own admission – with the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) in Gaza. That ministry is not a neutral body.
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