JERUSALEM – In recent weeks, UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for assisting Palestinian refugees, has come under increasing scrutiny due to its failure to denounce armed terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip that have misused its internationally funded facilities, such as health clinics, schools, and even its main headquarters, to wage a violent conflict against Israel.
Recently, Israeli lawmakers passed the first reading of a bill aimed at severing ties with the controversial U.N. agency and labeling it a terrorist organization. During a Knesset session last week, Yulia Malinovsky, the bill’s proponent, described UNRWA as “a fifth column within the State of Israel” and stated it is essential for the agency to be banned within the country.
Furthermore, this month, the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Congress also endorsed preliminary legislation to extend an existing funding freeze on the multi-million-dollar organization while instructing the State Department to seek to reclaim previously allocated funds.
“We have substantial evidence to implement terrorism sanctions against UNRWA,” Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital.
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Images provided by the Israel Defense Forces depict individuals they allege are Hamas fighters located within the UNRWA facility in Rafah. (IDF)
Goldberg, a former member of the Trump National Security Council, emphasized that “the controversial organization must be barred from any future involvement in Gaza,” stressing that “UNRWA’s existence promotes violence and hatred against Jews and Israel, directly contradicting the mission to de-radicalize Palestinian society and foster Palestinian self-reliance.”
“Keeping UNRWA operational for future developments in Gaza condemns both Palestinians and Israelis to a persistent cycle of violence and instability,” he remarked.
The mounting criticism of UNRWA, which claims to conduct essential, life-saving operations for around 5.9 million Palestinians across Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, follows Israel’s assertion that UNRWA personnel were involved in the Hamas-led terror attacks on October 7. This attack resulted in the deaths of over 1,200 individuals, primarily civilians, with an additional 240 people, including a 9-month-old infant, taken hostage into Gaza.
UNRWA headquarters in Gaza. Hamas terrorists assault a kibbutz in Israel while a woman is kidnapped by terrorists on October 7. (Getty, Israel Defense Forces via AP | Ahmed Zakot/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images | Hamas-Telegram)
In February, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant informed Fox News Digital that “dozens” of UNRWA staff participated in the tragic attacks and revealed that, after the release of over 100 hostages, primarily women and children, during a cease-fire deal last November, some were held by teachers and medical staff employed by the agency.
Israel has long accused UNRWA, which stands for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, of keeping the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict alive. The country highlights that Palestinian refugees are uniquely served by their own distinct aid agency, unlike refugees from nearly every other global conflict, who fall under the broader U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Furthermore, Israel observes that UNRWA, established in 1949 to assist hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by Israel’s creation, continues to acknowledge the descendants of those refugees regardless of their birthplace or current status, rather than seeking to resettle them like other refugee agencies.
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UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini (Getty Images)
As per UNRWA’s website, its budget for 2023 was set at $1.46 billion, with major contributions from the U.S., Germany, EU, and France; however, following the revelation of employee involvement in the October 7 attacks, the U.S. and 17 other countries decided to suspend funding.
In March, part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, Congress voted to extend the funding freeze through March 2025, despite most other nations reinstating their support. Recently, under the new Labor government, the U.K. announced it would soon “allocate £21 million [$21.2 m] to support [UNRWA’s] critical work in Gaza.”
IDF soldiers conducting operations in Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip. (IDF Spokesman’s Office)
The resumption of funding is occurring while the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) investigates Israel’s allegations against UNRWA staff, according to an announcement made in April; and as the Israeli military reports almost daily encounters with armed groups in and around UNRWA properties, which include facilities where Gazans are seeking shelter.
Although UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini has been quick to denounce the clashes occurring in his organization’s facilities – along with the civilian casualties, which the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry reports are around 38,000 – he has not publicly condemned Hamas or other militant groups for intentionally initiating conflicts in these centers.
Displaced Palestinians arriving in central Gaza after escaping from Rafah on May 9. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s communications director, told Fox News Digital that the organization has “denounced all factions involved in the conflict over the misuse of UNRWA facilities, including Hamas and other armed groups.”
“We have reiterated these statements consistently through public addresses, speeches, and media interactions, including statements from the Commissioner General,” she commented.
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“We have also reminded all conflict parties that U.N. facilities must never be used for military or combat purposes,” Touma added, indicating that UNRWA has “called for investigations and independent inquiries into all breaches of international humanitarian law.”
Nonetheless, the critiques suggest that these condemnations may not be sufficiently strong.
The legislation which passed its initial reading in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, garnered support from a diverse range of lawmakers. If enacted into law, UNRWA would be barred from operating within Israeli borders, and its staff would lose the diplomatic privileges commonly extended to other U.N. personnel.
A U.N. vehicle entering UNRWA offices in Jerusalem on April 2, 2024. (Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS)
UNRWA is facing criticism in Congress as well, with some members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee intent on upholding the ban on funding – and even looking to reclaim U.S. funds already allocated to the agency.
On July 12, the committee voted on a bipartisan bill introduced by Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., which directs the secretary of state to recover any federal funds already provided to UNRWA. This bill passed the committee with a vote of 24-22. Mast later posted a lengthy video on X, accusing those who opposed it of “willfully disregarding evidence that doesn’t fit their narrative that Palestinians are victims in this war – that’s the perspective they want to put forth – rather than acknowledging that they instigated this war, they initiated a genocide, and that this ongoing conflict is the result.”
He criticized Democrats who believe that “UNRWA was performing God’s work,” asserting that individuals educated in UNRWA-run schools are being “indoctrinated with hatred for the Jews.”
“For far too long, UNRWA has presented itself as a relief organization, while in reality acting as a breeding ground for Palestinian terrorists,” he stated, adding, “Intelligence assessments suggest that as many as ten percent of UNRWA personnel have direct ties to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It is absurd for our tax dollars to be funding such activities. The State Department must do everything necessary to recover this funding.”
Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voices, conveyed to Fox News Digital that cutting off American funding for UNRWA is logical for Americans “because UNRWA is an entity that perpetuates the hatred of Jews and the violence resulting from that severe intolerance.”
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“This isn’t speculation. It’s an undeniable reality,” she asserted, noting that “UNRWA staff participated in the October 7 atrocities, a significant number of UNRWA employees are affiliated with Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, and UNRWA facilities have served as command and control hubs and weapons depots for Hamas.”
“It is justifiable for Americans to withhold funding from UNRWA because it is the ethical course of action,” she added. “Terrorism, sexual violence, and antisemitism – not with our tax dollars!”
