Jimmy writes:
The U.N.’s agency for Palestinians said that it fired several employees after receiving information from Israel showing that they had taken part in the October 7 terrorist attacks. The State Department indicated that twelve U.N. employees allegedly took part in the attacks and announced that it had temporarily paused funding for the agency while it reviews the situation.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) delivers aid to Palestinians across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. The U.S. is UNRWA’s largest donor, providing $343 million of its budget in 2022.
At the urging of United Nations agencies, more than 12,000 humanitarian-aid trucks have entered Gaza since October. Hundreds of those trucks, containing fuel, food, and medical supplies, were received by UNRWA.
In October, UNRWA said on X that individuals from the Hamas-run health ministry had taken humanitarian supplies designated for refugees. UNRWA deleted the statement shortly after and clarified that “the images circulating on social media were of a movement of basic medical supplies from the UNRWA warehouse to health partners,” but it did not specify who those “health partners” were. A Palestinian man reportedly told Israel Defense Forces in December that “Hamas has their hands on UNRWA administration workers, and it manages UNRWA. . . . From the day they [Hamas] rose to power they took control of everything.”
For months, U.N. agencies have denied claims that Hamas steals humanitarian aid. GOP lawmakers aren’t so sure — this month, they called on UNRWA’s commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini to answer how “taxpayer dollars may have, through UNRWA failures, supported Hamas terrorists”:
Though UNRWA has denied these most recent allegations, diversion of food, fuel, and supplies by terrorist organizations, like Hamas, is not a new problem.
In fact, the risk of diversion in the region is so high that the USAID Office of Inspector General (USAID OIG) issued a fraud awareness alert after the Biden administration provided $100 million in aid through USAID, UN agencies, such as UNRWA, and other international NGOs. Specifically, USAID OIG stated its investigative priority is, “…to ensure that assistance does not fall into the hands of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) including, but not limited to, Hamas.
USAID OIG went on to say that it, “…has identified deliberate interference and efforts to divert humanitarian assistance in regions where FTO activity is prevalent … [t]his includes systemic coercion of aid workers by FTOs…”
We must be clear-eyed about the reality that diversion by Hamas is a real threat and one that is very likely happening with UNRWA aid. We also remain concerned by UNRWA’s repeated failure to uphold United Nations standards of neutrality in the agency’s operations in Gaza. Hamas tunnels have been found suspiciously close to UNRWA schools, as these terrorists continue to use children and their schools as human shields.
Lazzarini said in December that “attacking and trying to discredit humanitarian organizations such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency” — the agency that, it has now been revealed, employed at least twelve terrorists — “is yet another means of waging war.”