Israel war: Biden administration gave money to Hamas-linked groups
- October 11, 2023
Sarah Bedford, Washington Times
President Joe Biden’s decision to restart aid programs for Palestinians has drawn fresh criticism this week amid questions about how Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization in control of the Gaza Strip, acquired the resources to launch an attack on Israel.
Biden has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars toward Palestinians since taking office, reversing a decision by former President Donald Trump to cut off nearly all aid to Palestinians, in part because of concerns about Hamas’s influence.
Less than a month before the attack, a Biden administration watchdog warned that there was not enough transparency surrounding the influx of funding that Biden approved for Palestinians starting when he took office in 2021.
“We assess there is a high-risk Hamas could potentially derive indirect, unintentional benefit from U.S. assistance to Gaza,” the State Department wrote in an internal document in March 2021, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.