UNRWA should be banned from Gaza reconstruction efforts, experts say

Amid the implementation of President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan to end the war between Hamas and Israel, Middle East experts are urging that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) should have no presence in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip due to its alleged support for the Hamas terrorist organization and its track record of extreme incompetence.

Hugh Duggan, who served on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Affairs in 2020, told Fox News Digital: “UNRWA mission The aim was to provide relief and support pending a lasting political solution. As such, the solution is within reach – waiting for Hamas to comply with immediate disarmament – ​​and truly neutral humanitarian operations require new measures and approaches.

He added: “For months, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been distributing aid independently of UN channels and preventing its diversion by armed groups. Other UN humanitarian operations will be well served to take shelter and work in the shadow of the GHF under the scorching sun for critical humanitarian needs.”

The Israeli army kills a Hamas terrorist who says he works for UNRWA, and leads an attack on the Al-Reem bomb shelter massacre.

Pictures are displayed on the walls of a bomb shelter, where people took refuge six months ago before being killed during the deadly October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, near Kibbutz Beri in southern Israel, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (Reuters/Amir Cohen)

Dugan, a former diplomat who served in the US mission to the world body, said that UNRWA turned the household industry into a sprawling, cross-border bureaucracy that perpetuated financial waste and prolonged the conflict by granting refugee status to the descendants of Palestinian refugees after the first war between Israel and the Arab countries.

He said: “After the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, UNRWA’s crucial mission was to provide a relief and direct employment program for 800,000 Palestinian refugees. Its mission was to put itself out of business as quickly as possible, yet it has taken a path of mission creep. Over decades, administratively taken over by the UN bureaucracy, UNRWA has been working to perpetuate a refugee situation that now swells to 5.9 million.”

“Billions of dollars later, Palestinians remain heavily dependent on humanitarian aid of a basic kind,” Dugan concluded. “This has positioned UNRWA as a political player in its own right that goes beyond its original mission. Its policies and relations with Hamas reveal that UNRWA has irrevocably lost its foundations in humanitarian neutrality and non-discrimination.”

The file reveals information used to explain the deep relations between the United Nations agency and the Hamas movement in Gaza

People carry boxes of relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US-backed private aid group that bypassed the long-standing UN-led order in the area, with the return of displaced Palestinians from an aid distribution center in the central Gaza Strip in June. 8 The United Nations and major relief organizations have refused to cooperate with the Global Humanitarian Fund, due to concerns that it is designed to meet Israeli military objectives. (Iyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)

In August, Acquired by Fox News Digital The US State Department’s general assessment to Congress stated that “the administration has determined that UNRWA is irreparably vulnerable and is now seeking to dismantle it completely.” The Biden administration had given UNRWA $1 billion from American taxpayers Funding since 2021 before the freeze in 2024 comes into effect.

UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma responded to the allegations against the organization, calling them serious. She told Fox News Digital that such allegations “have never been substantiated, let alone substantiated,” adding that “the United Nations has conducted external investigations and reviews, and none of these allegations have been substantiated. What these allegations did, most importantly, is that they prevented UNRWA, the largest humanitarian organization, from Delivering food to the hungry.

“This is putting my colleagues in Gaza at risk and putting their lives at serious risk because of this misinformation,” Touma said. “UNRWA has 12,000 staff on the ground in Gaza. It is impossible to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza without UNRWA and its teams. We know that all other attempts to replace UNRWA have been disastrous.”

“Given,” she continued [the] She added: “As mentioned above and the action taken by the United Nations against these allegations, these allegations remain as they are, and they are allegations that have serious consequences for the lives of our colleagues, the delivery of humanitarian aid and the reputation of this agency.”

Pictures published by the Israeli army show three individuals whom the Israeli army claims are Hamas terrorists inside an UNRWA compound in Rafah. (IDF)

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs “President Trump and Secretary Rubio have long stated that Hamas will not rule Gaza again. This includes the institutions they have infiltrated to maintain their power and influence,” a government spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

The spokesperson reiterated guidance contained in President Trump’s February 4 Executive Order on Terminating Funding for or Reviewing Support for Certain United Nations and International Organizations, which declared that “UNRWA has been infiltrated by members of groups that the Secretary of State (the Secretary) has long designated as foreign terrorist organizations, and that UNRWA employees were involved in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.” 2023″.

“UNRWA has proven to be irredeemably corrupt, and has been infiltrated by Hamas and the Israeli government,” said former Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus. Islamic Jihad Part of the reason why Hamas was able to recruit tens of thousands of young men who were indoctrinated into jihad and sustain itself through two years of fighting.

Hamas terrorists killed civilians, including women, children and the elderly, when they attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. (IDF via AP)

“If we want a Gaza free of extremism, the first organization that must be removed from power is Hamas. The second is UNRWA. Neither should have any role in shaping the present or future of Gaza. It is time to invest in a better future for Gaza and the region, and it is time to remove UNRWA.”

“Since Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, UNRWA has been facilitating Hamas’ military buildup,” Conricus said. “By diverting international aid to provide for the civilian needs of Gazans at the direction of Hamas, UNRWA has enabled Hamas to transfer the majority of its funds to the military buildup in the form of digging tunnels, producing missiles, acquiring advanced drones and missiles, and paying Salaries and training of a large number of individuals. The power of jihadist terrorists.”

UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City, Gaza on 21 February 2024. (Dawoud Abu Al-Kass/Anadolu via Getty Images)

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

He said, “Throughout the two-year war, Hamas fighters systematically used UNRWA facilities and infrastructure to support and continue their military operations against Israel. Underground Hamas command centers were uncovered directly beneath UNRWA facilities in Gaza City, including electricity supplies and IT services from UNRWA offices to Hamas’ underground bunker. Hamas has systematically used UNRWA schools throughout the Gaza Strip.” Such as military staging areas, weapons production facilities, intelligence collection sites, and hideouts for Hamas fighters.”

When asked about UNRWA’s role, an Israeli army spokesman told Fox News Digital: “It is the political level that decides everything regarding the peace agreement and the post-war details.” Fox News Digital has reached out to an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson on several occasions for comment. Government of Israel Prohibited UNRWA operations In January 2025.