WASHINGTON — More than 100 staff at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees have been referred for suspension or debarment from taking US taxpayer dollars after a federal watchdog found they had helped Hamas carry out the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack against Israel.
The US Agency for International Development’s Office of Inspector General (USAID) submitted 101 more names for debarment or suspension based on their “participation” in the attack that killed 1,200 in Israel — including 46 US citizens — or “affiliation” with Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades.
“Among the individuals referred were UNRWA school principals, teachers, security personnel,
attendants, psychosocial counselors, and medical professionals,” the USAID OIG investigative summary stated.
One of the UNRWA staffers was a deputy school principal who also served as an al-Qassam deputy commander. Another deputy school principal was also a squad leader in a Khan Younis brigade.
Five employees of the UN agency had been teachers while simultaneously serving as military or intelligence officials in Hamas or its affiliated terror forces in the Gaza Strip. The report itself doesn’t ID the employees beyond their profession.
One of those teachers even moved anti-tank missiles to assist the terror group during the Oct. 7 massacre.
Other principals involved in the attack facilitated communications or worked in schools that let Hamas operate “anti-tank positions” and tunnels beneath the facility.
At this point, USAID OIG’s “active and ongoing investigation” has either suspended or debarred 108 individuals for “having participated in the October 7 and/or having Hamas affiliation,” the summary noted.
That will keep all of them from getting any US foreign aid funding for the next 10 years. A total of 1,500 UNRWA staff are being looked at, according to the Washington Free Beacon. A senior State Department official confirmed to The Post that the figure was accurate.
The inspector general’s office had expanded its investigation in March, The Post first reported. Sources previously revealed that the USAID OIG probe has been running parallel to a federal criminal investigation into Hamas’ ties with UNRWA.
“It remains USAID OIG’s investigative priority to ensure that U.S.-funded humanitarian assistance in Gaza does not fall into the hands of Hamas and other foreign terrorist organizations, depriving assistance from reaching civilian non-combatants in need,” the investigative summary concluded.
“In support of this effort, USAID OIG has additional ongoing investigative work aimed at preventing the recirculation of terrorist-affiliated actors across U.S.-funded aid organizations operating in Gaza.”
Previous inspector general inquiries have found funds for the UN agency are at risk of being diverted to terror groups in Gaza.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who chairs the Intelligence Committee in the upper chamber, and 24 Republican senators called on the Trump administration last month to “fully dismantle UNRWA” and eliminate it from the United Nations’ budget.
In February 2025, President Trump signed an executive order pulling US funding for UNRWA, though more than $839 million flowed to the agency from international contributors that year.
The UN’s annual budget also sets aside around $70 million for the Palestinian aid agency.
