USAID humanitarian packages were found amidst a cache of weapons owned by terror group APA&oq=Hezbollah+in+Lebanon+APA, an Israel Defense Forces soldier claimed to The Post, APA reports.
“From the American taxpayer to Hezbollah, with love,” said Asher Fredman, a former IDF soldier and currently executive director of the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, a think tank, in Jerusalem.
Asher told The Post that he found sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles and explosives alongside the care packages marked “USAID” while on patrol in an undisclosed village in Lebanon where the Iran-backed Hezbollah had a stronghold.
Former Israeli soldier Asher Fredman said he found USAID care packages in a Hezbollah arms cache in a village in Lebanon. There were also UNICEF folders at the site of the secret trove.@fredman_a/X
President Trump is in the process of dismantling USAID, which gives out humanitarian assistance to countries overseas.
He is aided by Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, who is heading up the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, which is targeting wasteful spending at federal agencies.
Last week, the 10,000 strong staff of USAID, most of whom work internationally, was drastically cut to about 300 employees. The agency spent $68 billion in 2023, according to reports.
“USAID is driving the radical left crazy, and there is nothing they can do about it because the way in which the money has been spent, so much of it fraudulently, is totally unexplainable,” President Trump posted on his Truth Social account Friday.
Hezbollah, which is funded by Iran, has been taking advantage of USAID along with other terrorist groups, according to NGO Monitor, a think tank that analyzes nonprofits.AFP via Getty Images
Israeli soldiers patrolling Lebanon recently found caches of missiles, sniper rifles and USAID care packages in a Hezbollah cache of weapons.AFP via Getty Images
Gerald Steinberg, a former astrophysicist and founder of NGOMonitor, a think tank that analyzes non-profits, with a focus on those that work on human rights efforts, said US humanitarian aid has flowed to terrorist groups in the Middle East for years.
“The folks at USAID knew that taxpayers’ money and ‘emergency assistance’ went to terrorists,” he said in a recent post on X. “@NGOMonitor has repeatedly documented systematic aid diversion by terrorist organizations in Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen.”
Fredman said the care packages from USAID also featured the logo of the United Nations World Food Program with the English and Arabic phrases “Gift of the United States of America” and “From the American People.”
Fredman said he could not disclose the name of the Lebanese village where the trove was found, citing security concerns, but told The Post it was set up by Hezbollah as a “forward base” to invade Israel.
Hezbollah supporters, waving yellow banners of the group as well as the national flag of Lebanon while standing over a makeshift US flag in front of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardment in the southern Lebanese village of Tair Harfa on February 9, 2025.AFP via Getty Images
Hezbollah supporters waving flags bearing portraits of the group’s slain leaders Hassan Nasrallah (R) and Hashem Safieddine during a protest in Tair Harfa on Feb. 9, 2025AFP via Getty Images
“They had been there recently,” he said. “They fled the village as they saw the IDF on the way.”
A spokesman for the IDF told The Post they had no further information about the USAID packages.
“When I served in Lebanon last October, we found huge Hezbollah weapons caches, together with USAID care packages (not to mention UNICEF folders),” Fredman had said in an X post directed to @elonmusk last week.
Last week, President Trump vowed to cut US funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees after investigations found that several planners and participants in the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel were on UNRWA’s payroll.
Israel has moved to cut ties to the agency.
