The US State Department announced on Thursday a "historic" $2 billion initiative in global health aid. Three faith-based groups, one being the UK arm of World Vision, were picked to help manage the program.
Past ties to Hamas financing
World Vision, a Christian aid group active in more than 90 countries, has faced past accusations of terrorism funding. In 2022, an Israeli court found Muhammad Halabi, a former Gaza operations manager for World Vision, guilty of sending up to $50 million to Hamas.
World Vision halted its Gaza operations and performed an internal review. The review reportedly found no issues with Halabi’s finances. Later, he was freed in a prisoner exchange during the latest Israel-Hamas conflict.
2019 US Senate probe finds negligence
In 2019, a US Senate Finance Committee investigation found that World Vision had weak compliance systems. The report said the charity had hired Islamic Relief Agency, a US Treasury-sanctioned group linked to terrorism and Osama bin Laden.
World Vision transferred $125,000 to Islamic Relief Agency as part of a USAID-funded project in Sudan. The Senate called the charity’s checks "borderline negligent." It also criticized the charity for not making public the results of its Halabi investigation.
Recent funding and operations
In 2022, the charity received $491 million in food, cash, and goods from the US government. That made it the sixth-largest USAID grant manager, the Senate said.
World Vision’s US office is based in Washington state and works in more than 56 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia. According to NGO Monitor, the group says it is "committed to improving the lives of children living under Israeli occupation."
In 2024, the group’s Israel office was shut down after an audit found it had moved assets to groups with terrorism ties and had members on its board who supported boycotting Israel.
i24NEWS sought comments from the State Department, World Vision, and the Israeli embassy in Washington but had not received responses by the time of publication.