U.S. Pauses Funding to UN Agency Over Shocking Allegations Staffers In Gaza Were Involved in Oct. 7 Attack
AP Photo/Adel Hana
The U.S. State Department announced on Friday that it is temporarily pausing funding to UNRWA after Israel alleged that 12 of the Palestinian relief agency’s employees were directly involved with the October 7th attack on southern Israel.
“The Department of State has temporarily paused additional funding for UNRWA while we review these allegations and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them,” spokesperson Matthew Miller says.
“There must be complete accountability for anyone who participated in the heinous attacks of October 7,” Miller added.
The statement also noted that Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday and called for a “thorough and swift investigation of this matter.”
“We welcome the decision to conduct such an investigation and Secretary General Guterres’ pledge to take decisive action to respond, should the allegations prove accurate. We also welcome the UN’s announcement of a ‘comprehensive and independent’ review of UNRWA,” Miller noted.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said Friday that an investigation had begun into the allegations and that those alleged to have joined in on the devastating attack on Israel that left some 1,200 people dead and hundreds kidnapped had been fired.
UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, employs some 30,000 people – most of whom are Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank, or Jordan. The agency had an operational budget of $1.6 billion in 2022 and runs most of the civilian infrastructure in Gaza, overseen by the Hamas-led governing authority in the strip. In 2021, the Council on Foreign Relations reported that U.S. funding accounted for $340 million of UNRWA’s operating budget.
Following Oct. 7th, UNRWA has been accused by Israel of helping to smuggle weapons into Gaza for Hamas. Released Israeli hostages have also claimed that UNRWA employees participated in keeping them prisoner in Gaza.
“Does it bother you then at all that some of these trucks may be bringing, secretly smuggling in rockets or that UNRWA teachers are hiding abductees allegedly?” CNN’s Bianna Golodryga asked Director of UNRWA Affairs Thomas White during a contentious interview in early December.
“Look our trucks are not bringing in rockets,” White responded, adding, “Our trucks are bringing in wheat flour. They’re bringing in supplies that help families eke out a very basic existence.”
