Two former top federal officials released a memo Monday arguing for the permanent defunding and replacement of the Palestinian aid agency at the United Nations over its ties to Hamas.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East’s documented connections to terrorism continue to be under the spotlight following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel, where roughly 1,200 people were killed. Congress recently approved a ban on funding from the United States to UNRWA until March 2025. In a joint Monday memo, two senior ex-Trump administration officials wrote that there “is no going back to the status quo,” offering that other U.N. agencies, the U.S. government, and key U.S. allies ought to fill in for UNRWA swiftly to deliver key Middle East aid.

“The U.N. General Assembly today is unlikely to vote to change or dissolve UNRWA’s mandate,” said former U.S. Agency for International Development Deputy Administrator Bonnie Glick and Richard Goldberg, an ex-White House National Security Council member who worked on the Iran portfolio. “The priority now must be to defund the agency and isolate it from any work or responsibility.”

“Yet absent a concrete roadmap to move away from UNRWA, donors will restore funding out of the misplaced concern that no other alternative exists,” Glick and Goldberg, fellows at the Foundation of Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan foreign policy think tank, wrote in the memo. “This is a myth established by UNRWA itself.”

UNRWA has faced scrutiny after Oct. 7 for its staff celebrating the attack — and even participating in it. However, for years, terrorism ties have dogged UNRWA, which was formed in 1949 “to carry out direct relief and works programs for Palestine refugees.” Critics accuse the agency of perpetuating the problem it is tasked with solving — partially by relieving Hamas of its responsibility to provide basic services to Palestinians.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump cut off U.S. funding to UNRWA over concerns about antisemitism and terrorism ties, though President Joe Biden renewed the taxpayer-backed aid in 2021. Biden did so despite State Department officials in 2021 privately worrying about a “high risk” of Hamas deriving an “unintentional benefit from U.S. assistance to Gaza,” according to internal documents obtained by Protect the Public’s Trust, a watchdog group.

Glick and Goldberg wrote in the Monday memo that while UNRWA “claims to provide for every possible basic need of Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria,” it is not feasible for any single entity to handle necessary refugee relief, internally displaced person assistance, poverty alleviation, and other forms of aid in those places.

In turn, the co-authors said, the U.S., certain U.N. agencies, and other countries are in a vital position to perform tasks in a more widespread and effective manner — without UNRWA’s concerning ties to terrorism.

“When considering what Gaza should look like once Hamas is defeated and every hostage is released, the first priority should be establishing local governments led by Palestinians with no affiliation to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or any other terrorist organization,” Glick and Goldberg wrote in the memo. “Donors might assist in funding technical training for a civil service to absorb services for which UNRWA was responsible.”

The co-authors cited a recent report by the Vandenberg Coalition and the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, which proposed an internal trust funded by the U.S. and key allies aligned in preventing the reemergence of Hamas as a way to transition Gaza’s leadership structure.

“In adopting a mixed model for the coordination of assistance, this trust would empower USAID to partner with the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to assign roles, subcontract aid delivery, and monitor the transition away from UNRWA,” Glick and Goldberg said.

In the memo, they said the U.N. Children’s Fund, also known as UNICEF, has the expertise to help transition UNRWA schools to become local Gaza schools. UNRWA teachers have previously expressed support for Hamas, and the agency’s schools, generally, have been found over the years to share close ties to terrorists.

Moreover, Glick and Goldberg said the U.N.’s World Food Programme could temporarily help transition post-war Gaza due to its “decades of experience delivering food and other humanitarian supplies in conflict zones.”

Other agencies that Glick and Goldberg argued could play key roles after the war include the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.

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“The reality on the ground in Gaza is already shifting away from an UNRWA-centric aid model to a post-UNRWA alternative,” Glick and Goldberg said.