For years it has been clear that UNRWA has played a central role in promoting hatred of and conflict with Israel.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Israeli intelligence indicates that around 10% of all UNRWA employees in Gaza — 1,200 out of 12,000 — have ties to terror organizations, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
In the last 16 months, we have seen numerous reports that have exposed UNRWA’s direct support of Hamas’ terrorist activities:
At least 12 UNRWA employees, including seven UNRWA schoolteachers, participated in the October 7 massacre, took Israelis hostage, and even used U.N. resources to assist in the attack.
In March 2024, the IDF released audio recordings of two UNRWA employees bragging about participating in the October 7 attack. “I’m inside, I’m inside with the Jews,” one says, while another says, “We have female hostages, I captured one!”
In May 2024, the IDF destroyed a Hamas command center embedded inside an UNRWA school in Nuseirat, used by Hamas’ elite Nukhba force.
And just recently in January 2025, three female Israeli hostages released under the hostage-ceasefire deal revealed that they had been held in a refugee camp operated by UNRWA.
This plethora of allegations against UNRWA and its employees are indicative of the agency’s deep-seated animosity towards Israel and indifference to terror that have always existed within the agency.
International action against UNRWA provides a critical moment to forge a new path. Humanitarian aid to the Palestinians must be delivered through an alternative mechanism that promotes peaceful coexistence with Israel and is not indifferent to terror.
