Senior executives at Penny Appeal, one of Britain’s largest Islamic charities, privately warned that aid money the charity had sent to Gaza “very likely” ended up in the hands of Hamas and other terrorist groups, a whistleblower told the Daily Mail.
Penny Appeal is now the subject of a Charity Commission investigation, the paper reported on Sunday.
Inspectors seized thousands of documents from its £3.5 million ($4.7 million) Wakefield headquarters earlier this year.
The charity donated more than £350,000 ($470,000) to Programmes for NGOs (P4NGOs), a British group that helps nonprofits implement projects in challenging areas, to deliver aid to Gaza following the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
P4NGOs sent up to 25 trucks with food and humanitarian supplies through the Rafah crossing.
But Penny Appeal executives grew concerned when updates on how the money was distributed failed to arrive.
As shown in minutes of an April 4, 2024, emergency meeting, they warned that the funds may have fallen into the hands of “Hamas and other terror-related entities operating in Gaza,” the Daily Mail reported.
Local entities involved in distributing the aid “could very likely be a front for extreme and terror-related activity in Gaza that we should have no part in,” executives said.
Repeated requests for lists of those who receive the aid were “ignored,” according to the minutes reviewed by the paper.
Programmes for NGOs said that it wasn’t its responsibility once money and goods entered Gaza.
Ahmed Ibrahim, director of Programmes for NGOs, denied that Penny Appeal money found its way to Gaza terrorist groups. He claimed that he submitted updates to Penny Appeal, and that the latter’s leaders visited his company’s warehouses in Cairo.
Officially, Penny Appeal said everything is OK. “The donation was made following due diligence, production of a project budget, and Penny Appeal received a project completion report with receipts in June 2024, detailing the expenditure on the ground,” it said in a statement.
“We are confident the funds were used as intended, and are enormously proud of the work we deliver to support vulnerable communities around the world.”
The Charity Commission said its investigation into Penny Appeal is ongoing.
