How deep are UNRWA’s ties to Hamas? New bombshell report offers alarming insight
A new report by the human rights group UN Watch released on Tuesday alleges extensive collaboration between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
The agency, which employs 30,000 workers and oversees an annual $1.5 billion budget funded by Western countries, is accused of allowing terrorist groups to influence its operations and policies, including employment and decision-making.
The report claims that UNRWA employees, including senior managers, regularly met with representatives of terror groups in Gaza and Lebanon, referring to them as “partners” and coordinating actions. Proposals such as suspending employees accused of promoting terrorism or introducing an LGBTQ-inclusive code of ethics were reportedly blocked through threats from these groups.
“This report reveals how UNRWA’s senior management not only knowingly employ individuals tied to Hamas terrorism, but also allow the terrorist groups to influence critical agency decisions and policies,” the report read.
Last month, UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer harshly criticized the UN, saying: “It is absurd that in 2024, out of 23 UN General Assembly resolutions criticizing countries, 17 of them – almost three-quarters – focused on one country, Israel.”
In one instance, the report alleges UNRWA allowed Fathi Al-Sharif, a senior Hamas official and the leader of the movement in Lebanon, to continue as a school principal and head of the agency’s teachers’ union despite connections to terrorism, only suspending him after an Israeli government complaint.
Al-Sharif’s suspension triggered mass protests, and UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini reportedly reached an agreement with Hamas to end the strike. Al-Sharif was later killed in an Israeli airstrike in September 2024.
The report claimed that UNRWA regional managers regularly held meetings with local terrorist leaders to coordinate activities. In one instance, at a November 2017 meeting in Lebanon’s Sidon, local leaders reportedly told UNRWA official Fawzi Kassab that the agency must continue operating until Palestinian refugees “return to their homes.” They warned that if donor funding ceased, Palestinians would launch a “popular revolution.”
Former UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl is alleged to have met with Hamas and PIJ leaders in February 2017, promoting a “spirit of partnership” and encouraging them to privately contest agency decisions they opposed. He reportedly assured the leaders that such decisions could be reversed upon appeal, provided the discussions remained confidential to safeguard UNRWA’s credibility.
Krähenbühl, who resigned in 2019 amid corruption and sexual harassment allegations, was controversially appointed as director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross earlier this year, a move criticized by 17 U.S. senators.
The report also highlights meetings under the “Joint Refugee Committee” framework chaired by Mahmoud Khalaf, a senior member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU.
In June 2022, Lazzarini reportedly emphasized the importance of “partnership” during meetings with these groups. UNRWA managers are alleged to have attended Hamas’ annual conference, where agency-related matters such as job vacancies and teachers’ union elections were discussed.
At the 2021 conference, senior Hamas official Ahmad Abd Al-Hadi announced the creation of a committee to “oversee relations with UNRWA and ensure it fulfills its commitments.”
In February 2022, Claudio Cordone, UNRWA’s director in Lebanon, visited the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp to meet with Hamas, PIJ and the Houthis. During the meeting, he was reportedly told that the Palestinian issue “cannot be reduced to a humanitarian or security matter.” Similar sentiments were expressed in a 2018 meeting with Al-Hadi, who described UNRWA as a “living testimony to the 1948 Nakba.”
The report argues that UNRWA’s primary focus is not humanitarian aid but advancing a narrative portraying the establishment of Israel as an “injustice” and advocating for its eventual dismantlement.
Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon sharply criticized the findings, saying: “If the world needed more evidence proving UNRWA is Hamas, here it is. It can no longer be denied that all that remains of UNRWA is its name. Israel will not cooperate with humanitarian organizations managed by terrorist groups.”
Source » ynetnews.com
