Why Is Reuters Carrying Water for Hamas? Media organizations said there is ‘no evidence’ of systemic aid theft by Hamas. That reporting went viral. But it isn’t true.By Jonas Du
https://www.thefp.com/p/why-is-reuters-carrying-water-for-hamas?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
When it comes to the war in Gaza, how is it that the legacy media always defers to the narrative that benefits Hamas? A recent Reuters story illuminates the problem.
Last month, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) produced an internal analysis tracking reports of waste, fraud, and abuse of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
According to that report, between October 2023 and May 2025, USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance received 156 notifications of “fraud, waste, and abuse notifications” from its NGO partners in Gaza, amounting to a loss of more than $4.6 million. The key finding was that “for all 156 incidents, partners did not provide any information in their incident reports alleging SG [sanctioned group] or FTO [foreign terrorist organization] involvement,” according to a slideshow of the findings obtained by The Free Press.
But when the analysis was leaked to legacy news organizations, they reported something completely different.
In late July, first Reuters and then CNN reported that the analysis “found no evidence of systematic theft by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.” ABC later reported that USAID “failed to find any evidence” that Hamas “engaged in widespread diversion of assistance.” Those news organizations didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
There is a world of difference between “notifications” of aid misuse and actual misuse.
Two sources familiar with USAID and its analysis confirmed that the partners’ failure to report terrorist involvement does not mean there is “no evidence” of theft by Hamas. “The report appears to be wholly reliant on self-reporting by UN agencies and NGOs who are extremely reticent to report Hamas interference out of fear of violent retribution by Hamas,” a senior U.S. official familiar with the USAID report told The Free Press.
When the Reuters story was published, “nobody at the highest levels of the USAID administration had seen the report,” said a senior official at the State Department, which oversees USAID. “It was deliberately and intentionally manufactured. . . and distributed to plant a deliberate false narrative.”
Worse yet, Hamas used Reuters’ framing to fuel accusations of starvation and genocide against the U.S. and Israel. Allegations of theft “were recently refuted by an internal investigation by the United States Agency for International Development, which confirmed the absence of any reports or data indicating the theft of aid by Hamas,” said Izzat al-Rishq, a founding member of Hamas’s politburo, on August 1. “We strongly condemn U.S. President Trump’s reiteration of Israeli allegations and lies accusing Hamas of stealing and selling humanitarian aid in Gaza.”
When the Reuters story was published, “nobody at the highest levels of the USAID administration had seen the report,” said a senior official at the State Department, which oversees USAID.
In fact, USAID’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), a separate and independent watchdog office that did not produce the slideshow, has “received and are investigating credible allegations of Hamas interference, diversion, and theft of humanitarian aid in Gaza, as well as allegations of smuggling contraband into Gaza through humanitarian aid shipments,” according to a memo sent to Congress on July 30. (The Washington Free Beacon first reported the existence of this investigation.)
The OIG’s investigation will center on occasions where Hamas “commandeered UN aid trucks” and ensured UN aid was “directly delivered to Hamas officials,” according to the Free Beacon.
The discrepancy occurred because the report was not approved by either USAID leadership, USAID’s OIG, or other officials in the State Department before it was leaked to legacy outlets, according to the State Department official and a senior congressional staffer who deals with Middle East issues.
“This slideshow doesn’t refute the cover-up. It’s part of the cover-up,” the staffer said. Meaning: The authors of the report may very well be the same USAID staffers who collaborated with NGOs that covered up or failed to report theft by Hamas.
Indeed, USAID’s OIG has long warned about potential aid theft by Hamas. In November 2023, it issued a “fraud awareness” alert that OIG confirms is still active. It identified Gaza as “high-risk for potential diversion and misuse of U.S.-funded assistance,” citing a pattern of “deliberate interference” in other regions with terrorist activity.
In July 2024, the office published a report detailing “shortcomings and vulnerabilities” in its oversight of Gaza aid. These included concerns over the efficacy of self-reporting fraud, failure to require vetting for UN humanitarian agency personnel (including UNRWA, which employed individuals who participated in the October 7, 2023 attacks), and weaknesses in third-party monitoring.
“USAID OIG law enforcement professionals receive allegations from sources well beyond corporate self-reporting by the UN and other aid organizations,” a source familiar with USAID OIG’s operations said. “This includes reports from whistleblowers, aid workers, beneficiaries, and others who may wish, for fear of retaliation or other reasons, to bypass other reporting channels and send information directly to the USAID OIG where they are afforded confidentiality and whistleblower protections.”
According to data from the United Nations, 88 percent of aid trucks between May 19 and August 5 were looted by either “armed actors” or “hungry people.” According to the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, Hamas looted at least 60 percent of the aid entering Gaza in 2024. Dozens of videos shared on social media appear to show militants stealing aid in Gaza.
All of this would have been clear to Reuters with an unbiased reading of the source material. But time after time, the legacy media has failed to accurately present basic facts about the situation in Gaza. The only question is: Why?
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