The latest embarrassment for the UN group will likely lead to more calls for UNRWA to be formally classified as a terrorist organization
The chief oversight body responsible for monitoring American foreign assistance has unearthed evidence that an additional 101 staffers at the embattled United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) participated in the Oct. 7 terror attacks and are affiliated with Hamas’s military wing, according to an investigatory report transmitted to the State Department and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The U.S. Agency for International Development inspector general’s office, a law enforcement entity separate from the largely defunct USAID, determined on Friday that scores of “UNRWA school principals, teachers, security personnel, attendants, psychosocial counselors, and medical professionals” were also members of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades or other terror factions. The inspector general determined that all 101 current or former UNRWA employees should be added to a government-wide blacklist that will prevent them from participating in all American foreign aid projects for a period of 10 years.
The latest staffers to be flagged at UNRWA—historically the primary major relief organization operating in Gaza—include a “deputy school principal serving as an al-Qassam deputy company commander in the Ain Gallout/5th infantry battalion,” as well as a “deputy school principal serving as squad leader for the Khan Younis Brigade/2nd.” Another teacher served as a “platoon commander of the Central Brigade/Al Quds 2nd Battalion,” while a “math and computer teacher” was found to have “ties to an Al-Qassam intelligence squad.” A third UNRWA instructor had “expertise as a sniper for Hamas,” and a fourth served as a “Hamas soldier with orders to bring two anti-tank missiles to a prescribed location during the October 7 terror attacks.” One other deputy UNRWA school principal served as a “platoon commander in Hamas’ Nuseirat battalion with communications responsibilities on October 7th.”
The findings are certain to increase Congressional calls for UNRWA to be dissolved or formally designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration. Israel has for the last 20 years claimed that UNRWA—a 76-year-old U.N. arm established solely to provide aid to Palestinian—has been fully infiltrated by Hamas, which maintains an iron grip on aid distribution across the Gaza Strip.
The Free Beacon first reported last week that the USAID inspector general’s investigation will encompass at least 1,500 UNRWA-linked individuals suspected of terror ties. As the U.S. investigation—dubbed Operation Stop the Carousel—proceeds, several U.N. organizations have already attempted to stonewall the USAID inspector general.
The USAID inspector general says it referred all 101 “subjects to the U.S. Department of State for consideration of suspension and/or debarment action to exclude them from working across future U.S.-funded aid organizations,” including UNRWA or any other international organization that receives American funding. To date, the inspector general’s probe has resulted in the blacklisting of 108 individuals for having “participated in the October 7 and/or having Hamas affiliation.” Additional referrals, the report notes, are expected in the future, “as well as potential criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.” The federal blacklist ensures that all individuals identified by the USAID inspector general will be prevented from migrating out of UNRWA and into other aid agencies that may be involved in Gaza reconstruction projects.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told the Free Beacon that the USAID inspector general’s findings were anticipated.
“Unfortunately, it is no surprise that another 100 UNRWA employees were determined to be involved in the barbaric October 7 attack,” Pigott said. “President Trump and Secretary Rubio have affirmed time and time again that no State Department funding will be provided to UNRWA, which has been totally infiltrated by Hamas and terrorist sympathizers.”
One UNRWA employee—a school principal who participated in the Oct. 7 attacks as a member of Hamas’s East Jabaliya Battalion—was formally blacklisted in February as result of the inspector general’s investigation. A State Department source familiar with the ongoing probe said that investigators are discovering unprecedented amounts of evidence confirming UNRWA’s intimate relationship with Hamas.
“The sheer amount of officials tied to terrorist activity is shocking and unacceptable,” a senior State Department official told the Free Beacon. “This investigation validates Secretary Rubio’s policy that UNRWA is a subsidiary of Hamas and should not be part of Gaza’s future.”
As the inspector general’s investigation unfolds, the Trump administration and Congress are considering several fresh punitive measures that could include stripping UNRWA of its diplomatic immunity under U.S. law, opening it up to legal action from terror victims, and fully designating the aid organization as a foreign terrorist organization. Those discussions accelerated in recent weeks, after the Free Beacon disclosed that UNRWA and other U.N. agencies were stonewalling the inspector general’s probe.
“The USAID inspector general’s cases, coming in droves, are corroborating the obvious parent-subsidiary relationship between UNRWA and Hamas in Gaza,” a senior State Department official familiar with the investigation told the Free Beacon last week. “If UNRWA was not a U.N. organization, it’d be undeniably facing terrorist sanctions based on what USAID IG has uncovered.”