BURSTThe Biden administration on Friday announced it was pausing funds for the United Nations body responsible for Palestinian refugees over allegations that 12 of its staff were involved in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks against Israel.
“The United States is extremely troubled by the allegations that twelve UNRWA employees may have been involved in the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, referring to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, a U.N. body dedicated to serving Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip.
“The Department of State has temporarily paused additional funding for UNRWA while we review these allegations and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them.”
The pause is likely to impact an estimated $75 million that the Biden administration delivered to UNRWA in October, bypassing a long-held congressional block on the funds over criticisms against the U.N. agency, in part over concerns Hamas members were employed by the organization.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini on Friday that the body was launching an investigation into staff after Israeli authorities provided information that several employees of the organization participated in Hamas’s terrorist attack against Israel, in which fighters raided southern Israel, massacring an estimated 1,200 people and taking 240 people hostage – with more than 100 people still in captivity and without communication.
Lazzarini said the agency had immediately terminated the contracts of the suspected individuals ahead of its investigation.
“Any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution,” Lazzarini said.
“UNRWA reiterates its condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the abhorrent attacks of 7 October and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all Israeli hostages and their safe return to their families.”
UNRWA is provides critical aid and services to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and also serves Palestinians in the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon. Among the services include housing, food, cooking materials, schools and healthcare.
Israel's war on Hamas has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, as well as creating a humanitarian crisis and rapidly expanding famine.
The UN agency for Palestinians was established in the wake of Israel’s 1948 war of Independence, and servicing an estimated 700,000 Palestinian refugees. But the organization’s scope has expanded to include descendents of original refugees and their families.