The US State Department’s oversight body is investigating the now-defunct Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and its use of millions of dollars in emergency aid funding, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing three people familiar with the inquiry.
According to the report, the State Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) is examining a $30 million grant announced last June to the organization, which was backed by the United States and Israel to distribute aid in Gaza.
Reuters could not immediately independently verify the report.
The investigation is to determine “what money was spent and how," including “which bucket it came from, and how it was doled out,” one of the sources explained to Financial Times. Further, GHF’s aid pricing and other services purchased with funds received from the state department are also reported to be under scrutiny.
The OIG told Financial Times that it “does not comment on investigative matters and neither confirms nor denies the existence of an investigation,” however noted a February audit of the department’s “efforts to provide food assistance to the West Bank and Gaza.”
GHF reportedly 'unaware of inquiry'
Two people familiar with GHF’s operations said that the organization used state department funding to purchase food and logistics, Financial Times noted, while another person explained that GHF had paid “significantly more for food than the US had previously paid in the region.”
According to a GHF spokesperson who asked not to be named, the oganization was not aware of the OIG inquiry, and that food had been purchased “at reasonable prices.” However, internal GHF documents noted that transport costs had been particularly high due to the nature of the ongoing war.
GHF was “in the process of developing a plan to reduce transport costs when Israel’s government asked it to suspend operations in October because of the US-brokered ceasefire,” the spokesperson explained to Financial Times, declining to further comment on the organisation’s finances.
US officials previously questioned origin of GHF's funds
The state department had drawn from its humanitarian assistance funds for the $30m. grant given to GHF, according to one US official, while urging other countries to provide additional funding for the aid group.
In July 2025, several senators asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to explain why such a large grant was given, other rules that were waived, and what GHF’s other funding sources were.
“There should be no American taxpayer dollars contributing to this scheme,” the senators wrote in a letter to Rubio.