Human rights and humanitarian organizations have repeatedly demonstrated  tolerance for, and even embrace of, militants and militant organizations involved in attacks on Israeli and Jewish civilians. Questions exist as to what they know about militants working in their own organizations, and choose not to act on, within their own operations.

In 2024, an MSF staffer directly involved in Gaza operations described a broad internal institutional indifference to militant presence in its own operations:

"We know very well that in Nasser hospital, key players- the Hamas Ministry of Health people - had moved back in to offices and we were not welcome on that floor. There had always been doors you were expected to avoid or people who looked very security like standing in a certain areas and you weren’t supposed anywhere near that. So they knew there were door leading to tunnels or whatever it was. They were in the hospitals. The outrage over it...MSF is, "Oh my god these sacred spaces!" Like, the people who have breached these sacred spaces, we know its Hamas. We know that. So the outrage is clearly misplaced.

There were probably 10 of us in the room [when this person described this] And everybody just looked so, "Oh my God, she said it, she shouldn’t have said it."

(Describing the targeted killing by Israel of a physiotherapist who had been working for MSF as a daily worker)

"Basically, MSF put out a statement, "Yet again, the IDF is targeting health care workers." And within hours, we had [internal] posts that we should be careful who we hire because that was an Islamic Jihad militant." ...We were bringing people on as daily workers, so they’re not getting vetted in the same way as our regular staff.

So this is the excuse, "Oh, he was just a daily worker, he wasn’t actually on the pay roll. We just brought him in to full a hpa and we’re going to go through the regular hiring process to fill that spot permanently. And of course, later it all comes out that actually we do nothing. We don’t do ANY background checks on anyone we hire in Gaza. "

"When this all happened, the rest of the staff is understandably now are like , ok were really uncomfortable with this. We don’t want you hiring all these people. We don’t know who they are." …We had a pretty core staff for a number of years - if you’re bringing in new people who could be a target then you’re making everyone a target. So there was a lot of discomfort about that. And the staff themselves, a lot of them were asking for us to do background checks and we just weren’t doing it."

(Describing hiring for logistical roles in Gaza)

"We’ve got these two people to write the written test, the first step. They submit their application and then the next step is a written test, and the interviews are the last step. So there were two people on the list for the written test who were known Hamas militants," [and we were warned by a Palestinian contact in Gaza about this.} Despite flagging the issue "in the end they decided to just proceed and they were like whatever, it looks shady blah, blah, blah. We won’t hire them, but we have to go ahead with the test."... We’re putting everyone at risk and this is what the staff is saying, "You’re putting us at risk. And we were just going ahead even when we know."