US aid experts on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump's claim that the United States had spent $50 million to fund condoms for the war-battered Gaza Strip, which the president has sought to make a poster child for wasteful spending.

"We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas," Trump told reporters, referring to the militant group that has ruled the Palestinian territory for nearly two decades.

"And do you know what's happened to them? They've used them as a method of making bombs."

Trump offered no evidence to back his claim, which prompted both vehement rejections and ridicule from relief agencies and experts.

The United States sent no condoms to any part of the Middle East since 2019, according to a detailed report last year from the US Agency for International........

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