No Evidence Hamas Used US-Funded Condoms for Bombs as Trump Claimed

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

In late January 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration made a claim that they stopped millions of taxpayer dollars from being used to fund condoms in Gaza. On Jan. 29, 2025, Trump said, "We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas. … And you know what's happened to them? They've used them as a method of making bombs."

Trump made the claim at the 15:00 mark in the video below:

As Snopes reported on Jan. 29, 2025, there is no evidence that $50 million was spent to buy condoms for Gaza. As such, there is no proof that such U.S.-funded condoms are being used by the militant group Hamas to make bombs. However, we came across reports of Palestinians in Gaza using condoms, balloons and other items to airdrop small incendiary devices into Israel in 2020, during the last Trump administration. Those actions took place at a different time, and there is no evidence tying them to Trump's claims in early 2025.

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We analyzed the first part of Trump's claim: that U.S. funding paid for condoms in Gaza. In our past reporting, we looked at recent data from U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and spoke to representatives at Anera and the International Medical Corps, which are relief organizations that received U.S. funding for health care in Gaza.

We learned that no funds were sent from USAID to Anera or the International Medical Corps for contraceptive purposes or condom purchases in the 2023 fiscal year. The organizations were focused on providing basic medical facilities on the ground after Israeli military bombardments destroyed most of Gaza's health care facilities.

We then looked into the second part of Trump's claim: that Hamas was using U.S.-funded condoms to build bombs. Given that there is no proof the U.S. was funding condoms in Gaza in the first place, the claim that Hamas was using them to create bombs is outlandish at best.

However, it is likely that the claim emerged from 2020 reports about Palestinians in Gaza who used a range of items to send incendiary devices into Israel, including balloons and condoms. According to a Washington Post report from March 2020, over several months, balloons and condoms were launched from Gaza with small explosives attached to them. None of the devices caused injury or death.

One person interviewed by the Post in Gaza said he was not affiliated with Hamas and was part of "a loose cell of young men launching balloons," and he knew of 10 groups involved in such activities. However, political observers told the Post that such groups took orders from Hamas.

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We found photographs on Getty Images of Palestinian men attaching these devices to balloons and sending them into the air. The caption of one of the images states: "Palestinians prepare incendiary devices attached to inflated condoms to be directed and flown towards Israel, near Rafah along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel on August 21, 2020."

(SAID KHATIB / AFP/ Getty Images)

Another photograph shows men attaching the devices, with the caption: "20 January 2020, Palestinian Territories, Bureij: Masked Palestinians attach incendiary devices and flammable material to refrigerant gas-filled condoms before being released to be propelled by wind into Israeli territory, near the Israel-Gaza border."

(Mohammed Talatene/Getty Images)

We are unable to determine the exact source of the condoms being used as flotation tools to send explosive devices into Israel in 2020.

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According to Israeli news outlet The Jerusalem Post in a February 2020 story, the use of condoms for aerial bombs had been ongoing for two years, and Israeli authorities banned their imports to Gaza as a result of the threats:

Condoms in Gaza are generally supplied by either local Palestinian organizations or through international programs. The helium used to fill them up, which is intended for medical purposes, including operating MRI machines, is imported into the Gaza Strip with Israel's approval.

When first faced with the explosive condom threat, Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories limited the import of condoms, balloons and helium into the Hamas-run coastal enclave. The ban remains in place.

Were any of those condoms funded by the U.S. in 2020? We found this to be highly unlikely. As we previously reported, there were no USAID shipments of contraceptives to the Middle East from 2019 until 2023. The first such shipment occurred in the 2023 fiscal year, in which $45,680 was spent on oral and injectable contraceptives designated for Jordan. The Jordanian government was responsible for its distribution. This shipment did not include any condoms.

Thus, it is impossible that Gaza received any USAID-funded condoms in the 2020 fiscal year as well as in subsequent years.

Sources:

"20 January 2020, Palestinian Territories, Bureij: Masked Palestinians..." Getty Images, 20 Jan. 2020, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/january-2020-palestinian-territories-bureij-masked-news-photo/1194926932." target="blank">https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/january-2020-palestinian-territories-bureij-masked-news-photo/1194926932.">https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/january-2020-palestinian-territories-bureij-masked-news-photo/1194926932. Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.

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"Gaza Terror: How Condoms Became a Weapon against Israel." The Jerusalem Post | JPost.Com, 5 Feb. 2020, https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/incendiary-balloons-launched-from-gaza-are-often-condoms-616619." target="blank">https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/incendiary-balloons-launched-from-gaza-are-often-condoms-616619.">https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/incendiary-balloons-launched-from-gaza-are-often-condoms-616619. Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.

Hendrix, Steve, et al. "Gaza Militants Target Israel with Party Balloons Bearing Bombs." The Washington Post, 8 Mar. 2020, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-prepare-incendiary-devices-attached-to-news-photo/1228142426?adppopup=true." target="blank">https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-prepare-incendiary-devices-attached-to-news-photo/1228142426?adppopup=true.">https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-prepare-incendiary-devices-attached-to-news-photo/1228142426?adppopup=true. Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.

Ibrahim, Nur. "No Evidence US Govt Allocated $50M To Send Condoms to Gaza." Snopes, 30 Jan. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//news/2025/01/29/evidence-us-govt-50m-condoms-gaza/." target="blank">https://www.snopes.com//news/2025/01/29/evidence-us-govt-50m-condoms-gaza/.">https://www.snopes.com//news/2025/01/29/evidence-us-govt-50m-condoms-gaza/. Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.

"LIVE | President Trump Signing Laken Riley Act as First Legislation." Fox 9, 30 Jan. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsUTdwiLRxc." target="blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsUTdwiLRxc.">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsUTdwiLRxc. Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.

"Palestinians Prepare Incendiary Devices Attached to Inflated Condoms..." Getty Images, 21 Aug. 2020, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-prepare-incendiary-devices-attached-to-news-photo/1228142426." target="blank">https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-prepare-incendiary-devices-attached-to-news-photo/1228142426.">https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-prepare-incendiary-devices-attached-to-news-photo/1228142426. Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.