The European Commission has stated that reports alleging Hamas infiltration of EU-funded NGOs lack substantiated evidence, claiming that existing safeguards are effectively preventing such risks.
On December 3, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) declassified internal Hamas documents, sharing them with the Jerusalem-based institute NGO Monitor, said to be an independent and nonpartisan research institute. They showed that the terror group required EU-funded NGOs in Gaza to work with designated liaisons for close oversight.
A spokesperson for the EC told Brussels Signal yesterday that the body saw the reporting in the press and took any allegations regarding EU-funded partners seriously. The spokesperson added that the EC was looking into the matter and asking for clarifications.
“Our priority is to establish the facts based on credible evidence and verified documents,” the spokesperson said.
“Let us be very clear: Our support is designed to benefit the people of Gaza only. The EU does not finance terrorism.”
The spokesperson noted that the objective of the EU’s action in Gaza has always been to provide direct assistance to the population on the ground and to offer better living conditions and opportunities.
“The Commission has always been aware of the complex operational situation in which partners operate in Gaza.
“That’s why we have already implemented rigorous safeguards. We have ex-ante due diligence and risk assessment processes, as well as rigorous ex-post monitoring and controls”, the spokesperson said of the EU financing.
Regarding the reported infiltration of the NGO’s by Hamas, the spokesperson added: “The Commission does not possess any substantiated information that would highlight that any of our partner is not complying with EU standards and due diligence.
“If there will be clear evidence, the Commission will take all the appropriate measures.”
In a reaction to this reply, Olga Deutsch, Vice-President of NGO Monitor, told Brussels Signal: “Unfortunately, the response from Europe’s governmental and organisational establishment has been to issue broad denials rather than to look inward and resolve to do better.
“Hamas’ own internal documents relate in incendiary primary source detail that European NGOs, backed by hundreds of millions of euros of taxpayer funds, co-operated with proscribed terrorist groups and their affiliates in Gaza.
“Leading humanitarian organisations employed Hamas terrorists, funneled money to Hamas beneficiaries and stood idly by as Hamas rewrote the terms of their Gaza operations,” Deutsch said.
“If this isn’t ‘substantiated information’ delineating horrific problems with the Commission’s ‘rigorous safeguards’ I don’t know what is.
“NGO Monitor’s report makes no claims: it merely quotes from Hamas’ own words. And those words relate over and over again that the terror group exerted overwhelming control over all aspects of humanitarian work in Gaza,” she said.
NGO monitor was able to show via documents from Hamas how the terror organisation’s Interior Security Mechanism embedded “guarantors” — Hamas loyalists — in NGO leadership roles such as directors or board chairs to monitor and control them.
They included an Oxfam programme funded by the EU to the tune of €800,000 for a water irrigation project in a security-sensitive border area. It was used for Hamas military purposes, providing tactical cover for “resistance activities” through fruit tree plantations
The International Medical Corps (IMC), also EU funded, closed its offices in Gaza for a week after refusing to submit financial and administrative reports to Hamas, only reopening after compliance.
Cesvi, another EU-funded NGO, had at least one member identified as “affiliated with Hamas” in a 2022 Hamas document.
A group of conservative European lawmakers are demanding an urgent investigation into revelations showing that European Union-funded NGO’s were under the spell of terror organisation Hamas. https://t.co/ggUEi4Gzso
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) December 5, 2025
