Trump Administration Investigates UNRWA Over Claims 1,500 Terrorists Were on Payroll

U.S. officials are investigating the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the U.N. body that provides services to Palestinian refugees, over alleged links between some of its personnel and terrorism. More than 1,500 UNRWA employees are reportedly under scrutiny as part of the probe.

Calls in Washington for U.N. member states to halt funding to UNRWA have grown louder amid long-running concerns about the agency. Critics have pointed to allegations involving educational materials, reports of Hamas tunnels beneath UNRWA schools and accusations that some staff members took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

The United Nations carried out its own review of UNRWA in 2024 through the Office of Internal Oversight Services after allegations emerged that 19 agency employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attacks. Investigators said there was not enough evidence to substantiate claims against 10 of those employees. UNRWA ended the contracts of the remaining nine.

The USAID Office of Inspector General, a law enforcement entity that operates separately from USAID, is continuing its inquiry into 1,500 UNRWA staff members. The office recently said it had referred 108 current or former UNRWA employees to the State Department for suspension or exclusion from work with organizations that receive U.S. funding. Those individuals were found to have been involved in the Hamas assault on southern Israel or to have belonged to terrorist organizations.

A U.S. diplomatic official briefed by USAID OIG investigators told INC News that at least 1,500 current or former UNRWA employees are being examined for alleged ties to foreign terrorist organizations operating in Gaza.

A senior U.S. official who spoke with INC News said the USAID OIG inquiry “smartly picked up where the U.N. failed” by expanding its focus beyond alleged participation in the Oct. 7 attacks. The official described the investigation as “critical,” saying U.S. taxpayer dollars should not be used to pay aid workers who are members of foreign terrorist organizations.

The senior official told INC News, “USAID OIG’s investigation is helping prevent terrorists from criss-crossing across aid organizations that have received or are seeking U.S. or Board of Peace funding.”

Hamas was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 1997 by the State Department, and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group (SDGT) in 2001.

In the press release describing its effort, the USAID OIG said that individuals referred for debarment included “UNRWA school principals, teachers, security personnel, attendants, psychosocial counselors and medical professionals.”

They included two deputy school principals, one of whom served as a Hamas deputy company commander and another of whom was a squad leader. USAID OIG additionally referred a teacher with “expertise as a sniper for Hamas,” and one who tracked explosive device assignments. Another referred individual was a school principal assigned to a Hamas military manufacturing unit. Under his school, there were “three anti-tank positions and a tunnel shaft.”

In the case of Oct. 7 involvement, the USAID OIG specifically mentioned a teacher ordered “to bring two anti-tank missiles to a prescribed location during the Oct. 7 terror attacks,” and a deputy school principal charged with communications.

The USAID OIG stated that it expects to make further referrals to the State Department in addition to “potential criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.”

As a result of its investigations, the State Department has banned Hafez Mousa Mohammed Mousa from any future work with U.S. government entities. An UNRWA school principal, Mousa was working with the Hamas East Jabaliya Battalion and “coordinated communications with other suspected Hamas members during the Oct. 7 attacks,” the USAID OIG report explains.

In response to INC News’s questions about whether it will blacklist other identified UNRWA employees, a State Department spokesperson said that “it is no surprise that another 100 UNWRA employees were determined to be involved in the barbaric Oct. 7 attack. President Trump and Secretary Rubio have affirmed time and time again that no State Department funding will be provided to UNWRA, which has been totally infiltrated by Hamas and terrorist sympathizers.”

On July 1, the Board of Peace posted on X that UNRWA “has no place in the new Gaza.”

An official briefed on developments with the Board of Peace told INC News that the USAID OIG’s investigations are “quite concerning to us.”

The official explained that “we can’t really have an institution operating inside of Gaza where they’re purportedly delivering aid and services to two million people but also allegedly participating in and supporting terrorism. That is anathema to creating a safe and prosperous Gaza for Gazans.” Moving forward without UNRWA will require being “responsible and deliberate in terms of how we transition those services over to ensure there are no gaps in critical aid delivery, whether it’s health services, vaccinations, food, or other goods.”

Last month, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) posted about the infiltration of UNRWA on X, saying, “It is time for the United States to take action to address this growing problem and the systemic radicalization in UNRWA facilities.” Risch said he would work with the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. “to root out the terrorist links at the U.N.”

The U.S. Representative for United Nations Management and Reform, Ambassador Jeff Bartos, told a U.N. meeting in June on UNRWA funding, that it was time “to break this cycle.”

“This year, you have the choice to stop underwriting an organization that has become a subsidiary of Hamas, whose employees took part in one of the most barbaric terrorist attacks in human history on Oct. 7, 2023,” Bartos said. “This year, you have the choice to give the Palestinian people living in Gaza the opportunity to find durable solutions and prosper, instead of subjecting them to endless cycles of dependency and forever refugeehood.”

Hamas’ theft of aid is continuing to cause harm in Gaza. While not calling out Hamas by name, on Sunday, the U.N. Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Dr. Ramiz Alakbarov released a statement strongly condemning the “obstruction of humanitarian operations in Gaza by the de facto authorities.” He noted that the previous day, “armed personnel affiliated with the de facto authorities forcibly entered the Abu Rashid food distribution point in Jabalia,” and additionally “entered a [World Food Programme] warehouse and reportedly assaulted two truck drivers who were delivering humanitarian supplies.”

Alakbarov said the incidents “are not isolated” and “reflect an increasingly dangerous pattern of intimidation, violence and obstruction, including smuggling attempts, targeting and abusing humanitarian operations.”

INC News reached out to UNRWA for comment.