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Donald Trump administration pulls millions in funding for ‘condoms in Gaza’
DOGE and OBM found "that there was about to be $50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza".
The recent freeze on all foreign aid imposed by the Donald Trump administration also included pulling millions of dollars-worth of US funding for “condoms in Gaza”.
A White House official was reportedly explaining a separate memo from the Office of Management and Budget, that will temporarily halt the grants, loans and federal assistance programs pending a review, a Fox News report said.
The official told the media outlet, "If the activity is not in conflict with the President's priorities, it will continue with no issues. This is similar to how HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) stopped the flow of grant money to the World Health Organisation after President Trump announced the US withdrawal from the organisation. Or how the State Department halted several million dollars going to condoms in Gaza this past weekend."
Meanwhile, White House Press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in her first briefing, said that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and OBM found "that there was about to be $50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza".
The aid freeze from US applied to all, including Ukraine, with exceptions only for Israel and Egypt. America, the world's biggest donor, did not freeze emergency food and military funding for Israel and Egypt.
ALSO READ | Donald Trump admin freezes all foreign aid by US, including that to Ukraine; Israel exempted
The move came as an effect of Trump's executive order, "Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid", which the US President signed last week after taking charge of the White House.
"No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an internal memo.
In 2020, The Jerusalem Post had reported that scores of condoms were being used to create IED-carrying balloons that winds would carry into schoolyards, agricultural fields, highways, etc., in southern Israel.
The Post had reported that improvised explosive devices, floated into Israel through inflated contraceptives, burned thousands of hectares of land and caused "millions of shekels of damage".
As per the Post, several balloons with rocket-propelled grenades attached were discovered near a gas station by security staff in 2019 as militants learned how to increase their range.
The condoms were reportedly supplied by either local Palestinian organisations or by international humanitarian aid organisations.
