An aid truck moves on a road after entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 1, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is finally admitting a truth that Israel has known and reported for years: International donations meant to aid the Gazan population have gone to Hamas and its terrorists instead.

Host: “Where did the millions of dollars that were collected as donations for the residents of the Gaza Strip go?” …

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “All these funds and the millions were collected and disappeared, evaporated, because they were collected through partisan and factional elements…”

Host: “Are you accusing Hamas or individuals in Hamas of stealing these aid funds?”

Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “I say clearly: Funds were collected through Hamas, its representatives, and its leaders, and through Arab and Islamic elements who handed them over to Hamas-”

Host: “And they did not reach Gaza, they disappeared.”

Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “And they disappeared.”

Video title: “Mahmoud Al-Habbash reveals: Millions of donations were collected to help Gaza and disappeared, and this is a call to the Arab states and Arab peoples”

[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, June 4, 2026]

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA has been asking for unity with Hamas because Hamas is more popular than Mahmoud Abbas’ leading party Fatah, while at the same time it condemns Hamas for having brought destruction on the Gaza Strip.

Now the PA is accusing Hamas of stealing millions from the Gazans.

Bassem Barhoum, a columnist for the official PA daily, wrote that international donors believe they are relieving the suffering of Gazan civilians but in fact their donations reach the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas instead:

Every time Hamas confronts Israel and the confrontation prolongs and turns into a war… it serves their interests. They collect donations from all over the world, especially from Islamic states where the donor believes he is contributing to alleviating the suffering of his Palestinian brothers. 

However, these donations reach the Muslim Brotherhood and their international organization, which are now replete with billions from the spilling of the Palestinians’ blood. [Emphasis added]

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 8, 2026]

Barhoum also pointed out that Hamas’ leadership abroad never cared about the Gazan population but just used their suffering to raise money. He also speculated that the Oct. 7 War was launched as a “financially calculated move” by the Muslim Brotherhood to make money:

The Hamas leadership living abroad neither sees nor feels the tragedy of the people in the Gaza Strip, because its real goals do not include thinking about the people’s situation, but rather collecting money through donations in the name of the Gaza Strip’s tragedy. Most of this money goes to the international organization of the [Muslim Brotherhood] organization, which has effectively become a huge financial institution. For it, the Gaza Strip is its main project, and perhaps the most important [project], as it brings it the most money…

The civilians of the Gaza Strip are just fuel … What unleashed [Israel’s] criminal hand was ‘the Hamas flood,’ which we naively believed was an uncalculated action, but in fact, it was a financially calculated move by the international Muslim Brotherhood organization.

Two years of war and two years of fundraising – what project could be more profitable for the organization than this? [Emphasis added]

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 13, 2025]

In another editorial, written during the Oct. 7 War, the PA criticized Hamas for accumulating wealth rather than caring for the population:

The safes of Hamas are stuffed with gift money, grants, and donations for the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as funds from commercial investments, particularly in money exchange markets and money transfers. However, not a single dirham has been taken from these safes to provide emergency relief for the dire situation in the Gaza Strip, and none will be taken out!

This is because Hamas has no intention of spending a penny on this matter, for as [Hamas Chairman in Gaza] Khalil Al-Hayya stated, Hamas’ money is for Hamas! … The displaced people in the Gaza Strip… are wondering today why these funds, which were collected in their name, remain locked in these safes, and why their owners do not think of others? [Emphasis added]

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 14, 2025]

A news broadcast on PA TV last year accused Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood of pretending to collect charity and stealing donations so their leaders could spend the money on themselves, living the good life abroad, far away from the Gaza Strip:

Official PA TV newsreader: “The Hamas Movement and the Muslim Brotherhood organization accuse each other of stealing donation funds for the Gaza Strip amounting to half a billion dollars, which were collected by several associations claiming to be charity organizations.”

PA TV narrator: “While our helpless people live in the Gaza Strip under harsh living conditions… and are prevented from receiving food, drink, medicine, electricity, and cooking gas – their compatriots among the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood abroad live comfortably and become fat from the money of the donation funds and aid that have been collected by groups from among the robber associations, at the expense of the suffering of the oppressed [in Gaza]… There is a total of $500 million that the leaders of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood accuse each other regarding its fate, where it disappeared to, and what these funds were spent on by these associations in the Gaza Strip… [This is] after evidence appeared proving their involvement in the theft of this huge sum of money from the aid funds.

The thieving institutions of the Muslim Brotherhood engage in money laundering, collect alms at the expense of the blood and flesh of our people, while those [fundraising] preachers whom these associations rely on live in luxurious palaces and lead lives of indulgence, splendor, and luxury… The conscience of the war merchants – who are cloaked in the guise of religion and resistance – does not awaken … These associations operate on behalf of Hamas.” [Emphasis added]

[Official PA TV News, Nov. 16, 2025]

The following are screenshots of some of the donation checks to the Gaza Strip shown in the video. They are donations from Mauritania of millions of dollars:

Text on check: “Tinwajiw Tribe Initiative

Beneficiary: The National Association for Assistance to the Palestinian People

300 million [Mauritanian] ouguiya (over $7.5 million – ed.)”

Text on check: “Bani… Tribe Initiative for Assistance to Gaza and the Al-Aqsa Mosque

500 million old [Mauritanian] ouguiya (over $1.2 million -Ed.)

Beneficiary – Muhammad Subhi Abu Saqr – Hamas representative in Mauritania”

Text on check: “Liglal Initiative for Assistance to Gaza

Second payment

1 billion ouguiya (over $25.1 million -Ed.)

Beneficiary – Muhammad Subhi Abu Saqr – Hamas representative in Mauritania”

[Official PA TV News, Nov. 16, 2025]

Citing “reliable research estimates” the PA stated in December 2025, in its official daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, that Hamas had raised no less than “$11 billion,” which the terror organization had spent filling its own warehouses “to the brim” rather than spending it on Gazans:

While the West is eager to blame Israel for the suffering in the Gaza Strip, donor countries and organizations would be wise to do a bit of soul searching and check where their money went before they sign a generous check to Hamas or other terrorists again.

The author is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this story first appeared.