A controversial United Nations agency is being investigated by U.S. officials for alleged ties to terrorism. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the U.N. organization for Palestinian refugees, has more than 1,500 employees being probed for links to terrorism.
U.S. officials have increasingly called on U.N. member states to defund UNRWA after decades of concerns about its school materials , the presence of Hamas tunnels beneath UNRWA schools and charges that staff members participated in the Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct. 7 against Israel.
US URGES DONORS TO ABANDON UNRWA FUNDING AS UN DEFENDS AGENCY’S MISSION
While the U.N. conducted its own UNRWA investigation in 2024 through the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) following claims that 19 UNRWA employees were part of the Oct. 7. attacks, OIOS found insufficient evidence to support the participation of 10 employees. For the remaining nine, UNRWA terminated their contracts.
As the USAID Office of the Inspector General, a law enforcement agency separate from USAID, continues to investigate 1,500 UNRWA employees, it recently announced that it had referred a total of 108 current or former UNRWA staff to the State Department for suspension or exclusion from working with organizations that receive U.S. funds. Those members were found to be involved in the Hamas invasion of southern Israel, or were members of terrorist groups.
A U.S. diplomatic official briefed by USAID OIG investigators confirmed to Fox News Digital that at least 1,500 current or former UNRWA employees are under investigation for ties to foreign terrorist organizations in Gaza.
A senior U.S. official who spoke with Fox News Digital said that the USAID OIG investigation “smartly picked up where the U.N. failed” by looking beyond Oct. 7 participation. The official said the USAID OIG investigation is “critical, as U.S. taxpayers should never fund the salaries of aid workers that are members of a foreign terrorist organization.”Â
The senior official told Fox News Digital, “USAID OIGs investigation is helping prevent terrorists from criss-crossing across aid organizations that have received or are seeking U.S. or Board of Peace funding.”
Hamas was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 1997 by the State Department, and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group (SDGT) in 2001.
In the press release describing its effort, the USAID OIG said that individuals referred for debarment included “UNRWA school principals, teachers, security personnel, attendants, psychosocial counselors and medical professionals.”
They included two deputy school principals, one of whom served as a Hamas deputy company commander and another of whom was a squad leader. USAID OIG additionally referred a teacher with “expertise as a sniper for Hamas,” and one who tracked explosive device assignments. Another referred individual was a school principal assigned to a Hamas milit
