Muslim Brotherhood charities stole millions of dollars of donations intended for Gaza, Hamas says

Israeli activists have often accused Palestinian activists of using the Gaza war – and the suffering it has caused Palestinians – as a way to make money.

In fact, several significant Gaza social media activists have been accused of or exposed for using their platforms to raise money, most of which never reaches the residents of Gaza. 

Recently, however, a Muslim Brotherhood-run charity, with connections in Turkey and Jordan, has been accused of stealing around half a billion dollars of funds raised to support the people of Gaza – by Hamas.

The scandal involves the collection of charitable funds by the "Waqf al-Ummah" (Endowment of the Islamic Nation) to support residents of Gaza. 

The irony is that Hamas itself raised the alarm over the organization, eventually issuing an official statement completely disavowing the organization and its leaders. Hamas began as the Gaza-based branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and has close ties to its branches in other countries.

The scandal first came to light in January 2024, when unofficial accounts affiliated with Hamas published a statement titled "Unveiling Institutions and Individuals," warning against charitable organizations that collect donations and funds under the pretext of transferring them to Gaza, but instead misappropriate the funds. 

The controversy began when a man named Khaled Mansour published a series of posts on social media, accusing the "Ummah Endowment" and several individuals associated with it of misappropriating donations intended for Gaza. 

Mansour's posts quickly spread across social media platforms, leading Muhammad al-Mukhtar al-Shanqiti, a preacher affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, to demand that Mansour stop attacking the organization.

Eventually, Hamas released a statement through its official channels, exposing three institutions in the fraud: the "Ummah Endowment Foundation," the "Al-Aqsa Platform," and "We Are All Maryam.” 

The statement, released on Jan. 27, 2024, was titled “Exposing Institutions and Individuals.” In it, Hamas claimed that the charitable organizations had been taken over by “certain individuals.” 

“We present this message to you with deep regret for the state to which some institutions of the movement have fallen, seized by certain individuals who are exploiting the legacy of some scholars. They have launched various campaigns, ostensibly to raise funds to support our people in Gaza and Jerusalem during these difficult times, while the reality is quite different. The funds collected are being used in ways that do not benefit our people there at all,” the statement said. 

The statement also exposed a group of individuals associated with those organizations by name: Saeed Abu al-Abd (Yazid Nawfal), Fouad al-Zubaidi, Abdullah Samir, Khaldoun Hijazi, Ahmed al-Omari, and Zaid al-Ais. 

Hamas said the institutions had been “taken over” during the previous two years, and that they were now operating “outside of the directives,” using previous endorsements by Hamas to collect donations “in a way that harms the people of Gaza and Jerusalem,” stressing that special committees had been formed to recover them, without success. 

Hamas said it was “withdrawing its support from these individuals and institutions,” accusing them of “serving their own personal interests, far removed from Jerusalem and its dignity.” 

The statement itself did not include any specific financial figures regarding the amount of aid that had been funneled away from Gaza to the individuals. 

Following the start of the Gaza war, the "Ummah Endowment" utilized social media to become one of the largest fundraising initiatives, supported by leading religious and media figures in Turkey. 

The campaign utilized modern marketing tools, including public conferences in Turkey, live broadcasts on Facebook and YouTube, paid advertisements, religious speeches to rouse public sentiment, and emotional videos focusing on the destruction in Gaza and the plight of the children there. 

According to public documents, the Ummah Foundation has launched more than 2,000 fundraising campaigns since its establishment in 2013, but the Gaza campaign alone raised nearly half a billion dollars in just a few weeks. 

The Ummah Foundation defines itself as a charitable foundation operating from Turkey. It focuses on projects related to Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Gaza. 

The Ummah Foundation’s Gaza campaign enjoyed the support of well-known religious and media figures within the Muslim Brotherhood, in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. 

Egyptian researcher Maher Farghali, an expert on the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist terror groups, claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood "stole half a billion dollars in the name of Gaza," after the endowment's activities were exposed on social media. 

In a post to 𝕏, Farghali said, “The Brotherhood stole half a billion dollars of donations intended for the Gaza Strip in a single campaign. As is their historical custom, the Muslim Brotherhood exploits Gaza, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Palestine to raise funds.” 

In recent days, Khaled Mansour has published a series of posts exposing corruption within the Hamas leadership and the Muslim Brotherhood organizations involved in the siphoning of funds away from Gaza and the Hamas movement.

His most recent post accused Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal of enriching himself from donations to Hamas and the people of Gaza. Since joining the Hamas leadership, Mashaal has become a multi-billionaire. 

He also posted a picture showing the identities of many of those accused of raising funds for Gaza, which were instead diverted to their own interests. 

من غير المعقول ولا المقبول على الإطلاق أن يظل العلماء والنخب صامتين إزاء استخدام اللصوص لهم واجهةً إعلامية لسرقة أموال المسلمين النساء والأطفال واليتامى في غزة وحرب الإبادة التي يتعرضون لها. ولم يصدر توضيح واحد في حساباتهم الرسمية إلى الآن.

أخشى ما أخشاه أن يُكتب هذا الصمت في… pic.twitter.com/QiHBLG1dnC

— خالد منصور (@mansourgaza) November 17, 2025

On Sunday, Mansour posted to 𝕏, asking, “How is it conceivable that many Brotherhood elites and Islamists remain silent about the biggest theft scandal in the history of the Islamic movement of the funds of the people of Gaza?” 

In its statement, the Hamas terror organization said that repeated attempts to dialogue with the three institutions, and to return them “to the movement and its objectives” were “met with outright rejection by them over the past two years.” 

“These institutions no longer operate in the name of the movement, but rather according to the personal interests and desires of those who have seized control of them and refuse to abide by the movement's decisions and directives,” Hamas said, advising all associates to “sever all ties with these institutions and the individuals running them, and refrain from endorsing or cooperating with them.” 

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