The federal government has sent $122 million to the UN’s Palestinian refugee aid agency UNRWA since October — before reports of its workers’ involvement in the October 7 Hamas attack prompted the State Department to temporarily halt funding.
“In FY 2024, prior to the new funding freeze, the US government provided nearly $122 million to UNRWA to address the needs of Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria,” a State Department spokesperson said. Position.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced that $51 million in fiscal year 2024 funds have been allocated to help provide food, water, sanitation, shelter, shelter, hygiene and other health needs in the West Bank and Gaza, according to a Jan. 16 fact sheet.
It is not clear what other humanitarian work the funds have been approved for.
The announcement comes ahead of the shocking revelation that 12 UNRWA staff participated in the terror attack — with several kidnappings and killings of Israelis, according to an intelligence document.
The US government sent an “initial tranche” of funds to the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee aid agency after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7. REUTERS Israeli authorities later disclosed information to the US and UNRWA about the involvement of its workers in the attack, prompting the State Department to temporarily freeze its funding. Debbie Hill/UPI/Shutterstock
The majority of UNRWA staff work as teachers in the region, and seven of the 12 hold education jobs. About 1,200 UNRWA workers in total — 10% of its workforce in the Gaza Strip — were also found to be linked to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini fired the staff involved outright and launched an internal investigation on 26 January.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the same day that the US was also “temporarily pausing additional funding” to review the matter.
The Trump administration cut funding to the UN agency in 2018, calling it an “irreversible operation” — but President Biden’s State Department resumed the aid and has since contributed more than $730 million. AP
In Tuesday’s congressional hearing, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) accused the department of making the “outrageous” decision to delay the suspension announcement for two days to let some of the appropriated funds go out.
“I am concerned that the administration is playing games with us,” he said in his opening remarks before the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability hearing.
“It looks as if they may have waited to make this announcement until after they authorized the disbursement of tens of millions of dollars to go out to UNRWA on or before Jan 24. And if that happens, it should be considered outrageous.”
In Tuesday’s congressional hearing, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) accused the department of making the “outrageous” decision to delay the announcement for two days to allow some of the appropriated funds to be released. AP
Mast has also introduced legislation to disband UNRWA, and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Chairman Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced a bill to permanently ban its funding.
The Trump administration cut funding to the UN agency in 2018, calling it an “irreparable operation” — but President Biden’s State Department resumed the aid shortly after he took office in 2021.
Since then, the US has given more than $730 million in aid to UNRWA and was until recently its largest donor — despite warnings from watchdogs that humanitarian funds are being diverted to terrorist groups in Gaza and the UN agency’s long history of indoctrinating Palestinian schoolchildren with pro -terrorist, antisemitic propaganda.
In November, the USAID Inspector General’s Office noted a “high risk for potential diversion” of US humanitarian aid that could “fall into the hands of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) including, but not limited to, Hamas.” MOHAMMED SABER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
In November, the USAID Inspector General’s Office noted a “high risk for potential diversion” of US humanitarian aid that could “fall into the hands of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) including, but not limited to, Hamas.”
Geneva-based UN Watch has also produced several reports documenting links between the agency, Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza, the latest showing 3,000 UNRWA teachers in a Telegram group sharing “messages, photos and videos cheering and celebrating the massacre on Oct. 7
UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer told Fox News on Thursday the agency’s involvement did not “surprise” him because his organization “for the past nine years has documented widespread and systematic incitement to jihadist violence, calls to kill Jews, and glorification of Adolf Hitler. and Nazism by UNRWA teachers, school principals, and other workers in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jordan.”
USAID announced fiscal year 2024 funding for assistance providing food, water, sanitation, shelter, shelter, hygiene and other health needs in the West Bank and Gaza, according to a Jan. 16 fact sheet. Reuters
“We had a meeting with senior officials in the administration, the State Department, when they reinstated the funding,” Neuer told FNC anchor John Roberts on “American Report.”
“When we told them about the involvement of UNRWA workers in terrorism, encouragement and promotion of terrorism, a senior State Department official said he did not know what we were talking about. He thought everything was great at UNRWA,” he added.
“The State Department, giving away hundreds of millions of dollars, has never asked us for more information on how to make sure the American taxpayer doesn’t fund terrorism.”
Mast has also introduced legislation to disband UNRWA, and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Chairman Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced a bill to permanently ban its funding. Getty Images
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has asked countries that have cut funding since the scandalous report – including the US, Germany, Italy, Australia, Finland and the UK – to resume aid to UNRWA, adding that the international body will also conduct a review ” comprehensive and independent”.
In the midst of the investigation, a Norwegian Labor member of parliament, Asmund Aukrust, went ahead and nominated UNRWA for the Nobel Peace Prize, saying “its work has been very important for over 70 years and even more important in the last three months.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
