This past Saturday I posted Professor Timothy Burns’s message to Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Professor Burns was following up on the study by NGO Monitor on Hamas’s grip on NGO operations in Gaza.
Good friends of ours are donors to Catholic Relief Services and Power Line readers. They traveled with CRS to Africa several years ago in order to observe and learn about CRS’s efforts in that part of the world. They were surprised and concerned about allegations that CRS may have ties to Hamas in Gaza and forwarded the message I posted by Professor Burns to their CRS contact. He replied:
Thank you for raising your concern. We always appreciate when our supporters choose to engage when they hear or read something like this. I’m currently overseas and our team was investigating, so I apologize it has taken me a couple days to get back to you.
We take all allegations of misconduct seriously and have thoroughly investigated these claims. This piece, drawing on reports from NGO Monitor, suggests CRS has formal ties to Hamas through a so-called ‘guarantor system.’ To be clear, CRS is not aware of any such system and has never participated in any arrangement requiring formal liaisons with Hamas or its security apparatus. We follow the U.S. government’s No Contact Policy. That policy allows only limited, necessary administrative interactions, such as requesting visas for foreign visitors to Gaza.
The documents, which are reportedly from Hamas’s Gaza Interior Security Mechanism as cited and published by this NGO Monitor group, contain clear inconsistencies, including misidentifying a CRS administrative staff member as a “director.” That individual had no role in programs or finances and left CRS in early 2024. Our review of the unredacted documents reveals multiple inconsistencies, including the reference to this staff member, whose only contact with authorities was to request visas for foreign visitors — a necessary and allowed administrative function. Documents supposedly originating from Hamas’ intelligence apparatus should be approached with caution, particularly given the inconsistencies identified.
CRS is a trusted humanitarian partner with strong oversight and rigorous mechanisms to ensure accountability. We have implemented extensive emergency programming across Gaza and the Holy Land for decades, with experience navigating complex U.S. and Israeli compliance and security environments. CRS’ unique ability to respond is due to our work with longstanding, committed partners, most notably the local Catholic Church. The Church’s historical and cultural presence in Gaza and the broader region is more vital than ever. CRS’ Church partners are deeply rooted in the life of the community and are trusted across religious and social lines, which allows for reach into inaccessible areas, and a deep understanding of the local context to ensure assistance reaches those who need it most.
CRS is in regular communication with both the U.S. Government and the Government of Israel and remains in good standing with both. Israel reaffirmed our registration after a rigorous review in November 2025. Since the recent ceasefire, we’ve delivered aid to nearly 400,000 people in Gaza, and to more than 2 million people since October 2023. None of this would be possible without the approval and rigorous oversight of the U.S. and Israeli governments, not to mention the US Bishops and the Latin Patriarch (Catholic bishop) of Jerusalem, whose territory includes Cyprus, Jordan, Palestine and Israel.
I forwarded this response to Professor Burns. He himself has not heard back from CRS. He noted three things about the CRS response above:
The NGO Monitor study that I quoted said nothing of CRS being subordinate to Hamas. Both the study and I said that other organizations were subordinate to Hamas. With regard to CRS, the study spoke instead of “The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,” a different terror organization. Curiously, [the representative of CRS] doesn’t address this charge.
[The CRS representative] makes no attempt to address my query concerning the use of “Palestine” on the map on the CRS web page. That name is back up on the map, by the way.
CRS has a history of aiding terrorists in the Middle East. See, e.g., this report.
I am grateful both to my friends and to Professor Burns for raising the issue and sharing their concerns with us.
