By Pesach Benson • June 4, 2026
Jerusalem, 4 June, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Individuals with ties to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have been employed by several European-based humanitarian organizations, according to a study released on Thursday by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism. The findings raise questions about the vetting procedures used by international aid groups operating in the Gaza Strip.
The document profiles three individuals connected to two organizations — the UK-based Al-Khair Foundation and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders or MSF).
“For many years, Palestinian terror groups have systematically used the NGO industry to advance their agenda, through disguising leaders as ‘humanitarian’ and ‘human rights’ activists, money laundering, and demonization propaganda,” Professor Gerald Steinberg told The Press Service of Israel in response to the report. NGO-Monitor is a Jerusalem-based non-profit that monitors the activities of non-governmental organizations.
The most detailed case concerns Adham Abu Salmiya, who serves as Director of Marketing and Arab Relations at Al-Khair Foundation’s Turkey branch. Al-Khair is an international Islamic charity organization based in London. According to the report, Salmiya previously worked at Gaza’s Ministry of Health between 2008 and 2012, during the period when Hamas controlled Gaza’s governing institutions.
The report highlighted Salmiya’s documented personal relationship with Wissam Taha, known as “Abu Mustafa,” described as a senior figure in Hamas’s financial support network. The two are seen together in photographs. Senior Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim publicly referred to Taha as a “brother,” and an official Hamas delegation attended his funeral.
Taha was Killed in an Israeli airstrike in Sidon, Lebanon, in March 2026.
Following his death, Abu Salmiya published a public eulogy praising Taha as a martyr who “gave without limits for the sake of God and Palestine,” and the two are seen together in photographs.
The second case involves Hossam Mansour, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in July 2024. While Mansour held a managerial role at the Al-Khair Foundation, the Israel Defense Forces said he was also a Hamas platoon commander who held “a significant role” in the terror group’s Internal Security Forces.
Al-Khair Foundation described Mansour publicly as a “senior aid worker.”
The report acknowledged that no independent open-source evidence was found to corroborate the Hamas affiliation beyond Israeli military statements, while Hamas-affiliated media outlets reported his death without attributing him to the terror group.
MSF Case Raises Further Issues
The third case concerned Fadi al-Wadiya, who was deputy head of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) military manufacturing unit while also working as a physiotherapist for Médecins Sans Frontières.
He was killed in a June 2024 drone strike in Gaza City. PIJ subsequently confirmed his membership and role.
The ministry argued that the findings may indicate a broader pattern in which terror operatives use humanitarian organizations as cover, benefiting from the credibility and access such organizations provide.
Neither Al-Khair Foundation nor Médecins Sans Frontières issued a response to the report’s findings.
“As NGO-Monitor has documented, international NGOs perform little or no oversight, as seen in the case of MSF’s employment of Hamas and PIJ terrorists, including Al Wadiya,” Steinberg told TPS-IL. “The Ministry’s publication highlights the responsibility of the NGOs and their allies to immediately end this deliberate blindness and ensure that international NGOs can no longer be used as cover for terror groups.”
The report was released as Israel continues to tighten oversight of international aid organizations operating in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.
On May 20, Israel’s High Court of Justice rejected a petition by an umbrella group representing international NGOs operating in Gaza and Judea and Samaria after several organizations refused to submit lists of local employees for Israeli security screening.
The NGOs argued that providing lists of employees would expose staff to potential retaliation and set a precedent that could have a chilling effect on humanitarian relief.
The justices gave the 19 NGOs 30 days to comply with the government. NGOs that fail to comply must cease operations in Gaza, Judea and Samaria.
According to government data, as of March 2026, 129 registration applications had been submitted to an inter-ministerial vetting team overseeing NGO personnel. Of those, 30 were approved, 19 were denied, and 47 remain under review. Another 34 organizations have yet to begin the registration process.
