US Investigation of UNRWA Could Lead to Its Being Labeled a Foreign Terrorist Organization

AP Photo/Hussein Malla

I have written several times about the fundamental corruption of the UNRWA. 

It is one of two "refugee" aid organizations at the United Nations. It is dedicated to serving Palestinians throughout the Middle East. The other exists to serve every other refugee in the world. 

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That's right. One agency for Palestinians. The other for every other refugee in the world. 

Think about that and let it sink in. Now, think about the fact that Palestinians are the only "refugees" who have had that status for 80 years. It is absurd. They are not refugees. They weren't even kicked out of Israel, but left when the Arab countries that were invading Israel to destroy it told them to. They fled an Arab-led war. 

The "Palestinians" who stayed became full citizens of Israel. The Palestinians who left at the behest of the Arab nations became "refugees," and the UN took up their cause as uniquely important, as Arab nations turned their backs. 

Palestinians don't live in refugee camps. They live in cities, have governments, get aid from and through Israel, and, when they aren't killing Israelis, enter Israel to work, because their own "economies" are dedicated to conducting genocidal war against Jews. 

The UNRWA itself is fundamentally corrupt, and exists as a worldwide support system for what amounts to two terrorist states, and it is filled with actual terrorists and terrorist support infrastructure. 

The Trump administration has said "Enough!"

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After years of supporting the UNRWA, Trump cut it off from funding, and now, finally, the US is diving deep into the agency's employees histories, investigating their ties to terrorism

The federal investigation into staff at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency—the U.N. Gaza relief organization that's been closely linked to Hamas—will soon encompass at least 1,500 UNRWA-linked individuals suspected of terror ties. This unprecedented dragnet—reported here for the first time by the Washington Free Beacon—exposes an aid group brimming with Hamas operatives, and is generating momentum in Congress and the Trump administration for harsher sanctions on the embattled aid group, according to congressional staffers briefed on the matter.

The punitive measures up for consideration include stripping UNRWA of its diplomatic immunity under U.S. law, which would open it up to legal action from terror victims, and fully designating the aid organization as a foreign terrorist organization, according to three Trump administration officials and other sources tracking the matter in Congress.

UNRWA really IS a foreign terrorist organization in much the same way that Hamas is, with which it collaborates. UNRWA employees participated in the October 7th massacres and held hostages. Their aid went straight to Hamas, and their hospitals served as command centers. Its schools teach children to kill Jews and become martyrs. 

The only difference is that UNRWA has the United Nations' stamp of approval. 

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These discussions have accelerated since the Free Beacon first reported in April that UNRWA and other U.N. agencies are stonewalling a federal probe into their ties to Hamas. The U.S. Agency for International Development inspector general's office, a law enforcement agency separate from the largely defunct USAID, has spent months independently unearthing evidence that multiple UNRWA employees participated in Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack. The probe will soon expand to at least 1,500 suspected militants with UNRWA ties.

UNRWA, an official organ of the notoriously anti-Israel United Nations, is the only aid group with a large operation in Gaza, with as many as 13,000 Gazan employees and a large distribution network. U.N. officials have insisted for years that it is the only viable option for getting relief to Gazans. But Israel and its supporters have long claimed that UNRWA is fully infiltrated by Hamas and has cemented the terror group's control over aid distribution.

The USAID inspector general is currently working with the State Department in the latter's effort to build a blacklist that will ensure terror-linked UNRWA employees cannot circulate to other aid organizations within the U.N. system. The inspector general has already confirmed that one UNRWA school principal participated in the Oct. 7 attacks as a member of Hamas's East Jabaliya Battalion, and has flagged multiple others for the State Department.

One of the perplexing consequences of the US commitment to upholding the "norms-based international order" has been our leaders' willingness to bow to the demands of corrupt technocrats and their bizarre fixations. 

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A second U.S. official said the Trump administration must consider a "whole-of-world approach" to UNRWA that includes further executive action and policies that would strip the aid group's diplomatic immunity. If UNRWA could be sued in the American courts, the agency could very well collapse under the strain of defending itself from a torrent of Oct. 7-related complaints.

"There is a lot here we can do," said the official, who would speak only anonymously due to the sensitivity of the ongoing discussions. "There has to be consequences for UNRWA—for its conduct in the run-up to and role in October 7, and continuing all the way to today with its ongoing refusal to adhere to legitimate and pressing American inquiries."

While the Trump administration stripped virtually all remaining American funding to UNRWA in February, citing its established links to Hamas, the agency still enjoys diplomatic immunity,  can access some funds from the larger U.N. budget, and has facilitated Hamas's continued control over aid distribution in Gaza.

The UN hates the Jews, and always has. While the US has a veto in the Security Council and has been the largest funder of the organization, we have sacrificed more than we should have. No doubt the idea was that we had to compromise to maintain the UN's legitimacy in the eyes of unfriendly countries, thereby adding to our influence. 

That shouldn't mean we should tolerate actual terrorists getting funded through laundered money. 

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There is no universe where a group of people is considered refugees after 80 years, who have their own cities and governments, and who are waging a continuous war while being funded by the entire world. That's not just a rhetorical argument; it's evidenced by the fact that there is a UN High Commission on Refugees for every refugee in the world, and a UNRWA solely for Palestinians. 

No Jews, no news. 

Countries that massacre their own citizens, allow the rape of women, commit genocides on their territory, and hang dissidents and homosexuals barely get a bit of criticism from the United Nations; they even get seats on Human Rights Commissions. Israel gets condemned almost every month. 

Between 2015 and 2024, Israel was condemned 173 times; the rest of the world combined, only 80. 

The UNRWA should have been abolished decades ago; it never should have existed. 

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | May 28, 2026
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