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A MA’AN Development Center employee who worked on a United Nations food-aid project in Gaza was identified as a Palestinian Islamic Jihad combatant in a martyr poster publicized Friday by researcher and HonestReporting board member Salo Aizenberg.
The employee, Abdullah Tayseer Aziz, was killed in January 2025 after an Israeli strike on a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse operated by MA’AN in Deir al-Balah.
In a January 2025 statement, CARE, an international humanitarian organization and MA’AN partner, explicitly identified him by name as a member of MA’AN’s staff.
A January 7, 2025, Facebook post reproduced by Aizenberg also mourned Aziz as a colleague and said he had worked on MA’AN’s in-kind food-assistance project in partnership with WFP.
What Is MA’AN?
MA’AN Development Center is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1989 and based in Ramallah, with relief and development programs in Gaza and the West Bank.
Its funding has included support from Canada, Norway, Australia, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, the European Union and UN agencies. Canada alone approved up to C$2 million for a 2025–2026 Gaza project.
MA’AN has also worked with the UN’s World Food Programme and CARE, a major international humanitarian organization operating in more than 100 countries.
CARE Confirmed Aziz Worked for MA’AN
CARE explicitly identified Abdullah Tayseer Aziz by name as a member of MA’AN’s staff in a January 2025 statement.
The connection between MA’AN and WFP is also documented by MA’AN itself. The organization says it has worked with WFP distributing food aid in Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah, including tens of thousands of food parcels and other supplies.
A Facebook post reproduced by Aizenberg and dated January 7, 2025, mourned Aziz as a colleague and said he had worked on MA’AN’s in-kind food-assistance project in partnership with WFP.
An Earlier MA’AN Employee Belonged to the PFLP
A previous MA’AN worker was also linked to a designated Palestinian terrorist organization.
In 2018, MA’AN employee Ahmad Abdullah al-Adine was killed during violence along the Gaza security fence. NGO Monitor documented PFLP material describing Al-Adine as a member of the group’s leadership in Deir al-Balah. MA’AN itself mourned him at the time as a colleague.
Al-Adine’s PFLP membership was not acknowledged only by Israeli organizations. A 2018 policy brief from the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia stated that he “belonged to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,” while arguing that he was merely a non-permanent contractor and that his affiliation should not be used to implicate MA’AN itself.
The revelation prompted Australia to suspend the government-funded project administered through Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA, which partnered with MA’AN. APHEDA later said the project resumed after a Deloitte audit commissioned by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which it said cleared APHEDA of the allegations.
MA’AN has nevertheless remained embedded in major international humanitarian operations. CARE continued to describe it as a Gaza partner in 2025, including at a jointly operated warehouse and distribution site.
The newly surfaced Aziz material now raises a more immediate question for MA’AN and WFP: what vetting was applied to personnel working on the food-aid operation, and did either organization know that one of MA’AN’s staff members was being identified by Palestinian Islamic Jihad as one of its fighters?
the cockroaches are everywhere