The United States is suspending additional funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East temporarily as it reviews charges that 12 UNRWA employees took part in Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel.
“The United States is extremely troubled by the allegations,” stated Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesman. Miller added that the United States is reviewing “the steps the United Nations is taking to address them.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with António Guterres, UN secretary-general, on Jan. 25 “to emphasize the necessity of a thorough and swift investigation of this matter,” Miller stated on Friday.
“We welcome the decision to conduct such an investigation and Secretary General Guterres’s pledge to take decisive action to respond, should the allegations prove accurate,” Miller said. “We also welcome the UN’s announcement of a ‘comprehensive and independent’ review of UNRWA.”
While this may be a “better late than never” scenario, there was significant evidence that UNRWA has been a problem for many years. Reports are coming out now that 10% of UNWRA employees have ties to terrorism. Though we would like to trust that a “thorough and swift investigation” will uncover the truth and that proper action will be taken to put a full stop to UNRWA funding, we will have to wait and see.
Report: 10% of UNRWA staff affiliated with terror groups, by Israel National News, January 29, 2024