David Brummer wrote in a Jan. 29 WorldNetDaily article:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s decision to freeze foreign aid over the weekend included pulling millions of dollars-worth of US funding for condoms in Gaza, Fox News Digital reported.
According to Israel Hayom, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the funding pause during her first briefing Tuesday. “That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money. So that’s what this pause is focused on, being good stewards of tax dollars,” Leavitt said.
Over the past decade, Hamas has used condoms to create IED-carrying balloons that winds would fly into southern Israel, raising the alarm on schoolyards, farmlands, and highways. These improvised explosive devices burned thousands of hectares of land and caused extensive damage.
The State Department’s review comes in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order, “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” issued last week directing a 90-day pause on most U.S. foreign assistance disbursed through the State Department.
Just one problem: it’s not true. As an actual news organization reported:
There are no publicly available reports by DOGE or OMB that reflect a plan to spend $100 million for the IMC’s operations in Gaza.
Reports for fiscal years 2007 through 2023 on contraceptives and condoms shipped by USAID to the rest of the world also do not show any record of condoms shipped to Gaza.
A former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, Dana Stroul, said in a Jan. 29 X post that USAID did not spend money on Gaza in fiscal year 2023.
An April 2024 report shows that the U.S. delivered a value of $60.8 million in contraceptives and condoms to four regions, including the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
The Middle East received $45,681 while Africa received over $54 million, or 89%, of the commodities in fiscal year 2023 (Page 9).
The article remains live and uncorrected.