JERUSALEM (news agencies) — The Trump administration’s cuts to USAID have frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in contractual payments to aid groups, leaving them paying out of pocket to preserve a fragile ceasefire, according to officials from the U.S. humanitarian agency.
The cutbacks threaten to halt the small gains aid workers have made combatting Gaza’s humanitarian crisis during the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. They also could endanger the tenuous truce, which the Trump administration helped cement.
USAID was supposed to fund much of the aid to Gaza as the ceasefire progressed, and the Trump administration approved over $383 million on Jan. 31 to that end, according to three USAID officials.
But since then, there have been no confirmed payments to any partners in the Middle East, they said. The officials, who have survived multiple rounds of furloughs, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Two senior officials at aid organizations confirmed they have not received any of the promised funds, after spending millions of dollars on supplies and services. They said they could not afford to continue aid operations indefinitely.
Some organizations have already reported laying off workers and scaling down operations, according to internal USAID information shared with the news agencies.
That could imperil the ceasefire, under which Hamas is supposed to release hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners and ramping up the entry of humanitarian assistance.
“The U.S. established very specific, concrete commitments for aid delivery under the ceasefire, and there is no way … to fulfill those as long as the funding freeze is in place,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and a former USAID official.
USAID has been one of the biggest targets of a broad campaign by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to slash the size of the federal government.
Before Trump took office, USAID had roughly $446 million to disperse to partner organizations in Gaza in 2025, the USAID officials said.
But after Trump froze global foreign assistance, USAID’s Gaza team had to submit a waiver to ensure the funds for Gaza aid could continue to flow. They received approval Jan. 31 to secure over $383 million in funding, less than two weeks after the U.S.-brokered ceasefire was reached.
Some $40 million was subsequently cut under a measure that no money be provided for aid in the form of direct cash assistance.
USAID then signed contracts with eight partner organizations, including prominent NGOs and U.N. agencies, awarding them money to flood supplies and services into Gaza. Then, the officials said, they began hearing that organizations were not receiving the promised payments — even as they had already spent millions, expecting USAID reimbursement.
Some of those organizations are now spending less and scaling back programs.
The International Medical Corps, a global nonprofit that provides medical and development assistance, was awarded $12 million to continue operations at two hospitals in Gaza. These include the largest field hospital in Gaza, whose construction was funded by USAID at the request of the Israeli government, according to internal USAID information.
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