JOE COURTS ‘HATE AMERICA’ VOTE

Hamas link to US’ $1M

A Gaza-based nonprofit tied to the son of a Hamas leader received nearly $1 million in aid from the US government — with one grant arriving less than a week before the Oct. 7 terrorist strikes on Israel, according to a report.

Bayader for Environment and Development Association has secured $900,000 from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) over seven years. The most recent grant, for $15,219, was paid out on Oct. 1, 2023, six days before the Hamas attacks on Israel, which left 1,200 Israelis dead.

The group, which works to help children and rehabilitate polluted areas in Gaza, according to its website, is associated with Abdul Salam Haniyeh — a son of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who organized the attack on Israel, according to a report last week from Middle East Forum, a Philadelphiabased think tank.

“Hamas keeps an artificial distance between its leadership and these charities exactly so grants such as this USAID money and Islamic Relief funding is made possible,” said Sam Westrop, director of Middle East Forum’s counterterrorism program. “In practice, however, these charities operate as arms of Hamas, building its infrastructure projects.”

Charity’s terror ties

The charity was started in 2007 in the city of Khan Yunis on the Gaza Strip, shortly after Hamas took over the region.

Bayader operates in “close cooperation” with Hamas, the think tank said. The charity’s financial director, Abd Rabbo Saeed Abu Haddaf, publicly mourned the November death of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Ahmed Abu Deka, whom he referred to as a “brother and friend.”

Bayader, which has been receiving cash from USAID since 2016, got its largest single payout from the federal government agency in 2021, a sum totaling $423,736.

Although Haniyeh does not have an official position with the Bayader charity, he was seen posing at the inauguration of a sports facility sponsored by the charity in Khan Yunis in February 2023, alongside members of Islamic Relief, a UKbased nonprofit with offices in 45 countries, according to its website.