Anaelle Meyer is a researcher, responsible for the nordic countries at NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institute that studies the funding, staff, and activities of non-governmental organizations that present themselves as human-rights and humanitarian actors. NGO Monitor was founded in 2002. Its work is to document, with open and verifiable sources, how aid money is used, who funds whom, and where claims of neutrality do not match the record on the ground. The institute holds special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. Today we are looking at two recent reports from NGO Monitor, both based on internal Hamas documents recovered in Gaza and later declassified. NOREF, Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution The first report is about NOREF, the Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution in Oslo. NOREF is presented as an independent foundation. In practice it was set up on the initiative of the Norwegian government, it is funded mainly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the ministry appoints its board. According to Hamas’s own files, NOREF did not merely talk about mediation however. On 15 May 2021, a senior NOREF delegation — including Deputy Head Marte Heian-Engdal and Middle East head Frida Nome — met high-ranking Hamas officials in Gaza. The agenda, in Hamas’s own wording, was “mediating the relationship between Hamas and the European Union.” NOREF wanted to maximize the benefit for Hamas and asked them quote: “What are the channels of communication that are currently working on dialogue between [Hamas] and the European Union? How are we able to contribute to this dialogue without obstructing these efforts?” NOREF was viewed by Hamas as a channel to influence European positions, while operating with a distinct lack of public transparency. And you conclude in your NGO monitor Report by writing following: “That a Norwegian-funded organization provided a platform for Hamas officials to discuss influencing European policy, and directly coordinated projects involving members of multiple EU-designated terrorist organizations, raises serious questions about the Norwegian government’s role in legitimizing Hamas across Europe.” NRC, Norwegian Refugee Council Norwegian Refugee Council and its secretary general, Jan Egeland. For more than a decade, NRC has campaigned against donor counterterrorism vetting. Egeland has argued there should be no vetting of the ultimate beneficiaries of aid, and has called for blanket humanitarian exemptions from counterterrorism rules. NRC has treated engagement with designated armed groups as essential to access. The captured Hamas documents show what that looked like on the ground. NRC took beneficiary lists from the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Development. Those lists, according to Hamas’s own security files, included people tied to the Qassam Brigades, Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades, and other designated groups. NRC showed what Hamas called “great cooperation and flexibility” with Hamas’s interior ministry. In one Norwegian-funded housing project, questionnaires were changed after Hamas objected to critical language. On 31 October 2022, an NRC delegation led by Jan Egeland toured Gaza and met senior Hamas officials, including Ghazi Hamad. NRC’s public account of the visit omitted those meetings. NGO Monitor’s conclusion is this: Norwegian public money and Norwegian institutions were not only delivering aid. In Hamas’s own paperwork, they appear as partners, facilitators, and political channels — while publicly resisting the safeguards meant to keep terrorist organizations out of those programs. In December 2025, the Israeli government revokedthe NRC’s work visa, alongside another 36 NGOs, following its refusal to comply with Israel’s updated staff vetting and registration requirements. The decision effectively suspended the organization’s operations in the West Bank and Gaza.
