The United Nations's agency in the Palestinian territories is aware of and attempting to get to the bottom of a claim that one of its teachers detained one of the Israeli hostages.

This report originated from Israeli journalist Almog Boker of Israeli Channel 13, who reported earlier this week that one of the hostages held in Gaza since Oct. 7 "was held for almost 50 days in the attic of a house" by a teacher with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. "This is a father of 10 children who locked the abductee in the attic, hardly provided him with food, and did not provide him with medicine."

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The agency takes "any such allegation seriously," Laurane March, a UNRWA spokeswoman, told the Washington Examiner. "We are determined to find out whether this information is genuine or false. UNRWA is in contact with the author of this allegation and whoever may be in a position to assist us in determining the facts."

The agency has faced scrutiny in the aftermath of the attack after a U.N. Watch report that found staffers "immediately celebrated and justified" the Oct. 7 terror attacks that ignited the current war. There have also been broader concerns about the curriculum being taught in UNRWA-run schools as it relates to Jews and Israel.

"We call on the governments that fund UNRWA to declare that they will stop enabling a system that teaches new generations of Palestinians to hate and murder Jews," U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer said, also noting that the "hate that led to the October 7th massacre did not appear out of thin air" and "was inculcated at UNRWA schools over many years."

During a weeklong temporary ceasefire that ended on Friday, Hamas released more than a hundred of the roughly 240 hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attacks. They are still holding more than 130 hostages, though it's unknown when they could be released given the resumption of the war.

The claim prompted one U.S. lawmaker to reach out to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres directly.

"I am appalled by the recent reports that Israeli hostages were held in Gaza by at least one teacher working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)," Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) wrote in a letter to the secretary general. "I urge you in the strongest possible terms to investigate these allegations that UNRWA educational personnel were complicit in the hostage taking. If so, a fundamental change needs to be made at the UN and in UNRWA specifically."

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The agency's website states the organization checks names of all staff, personnel, donating entities, beneficiaries, vendors, and suppliers against the Consolidated U.N. Sanctions List every six months.

The U.S. designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1997, while the United Nations does not classify it as one.