Geneva, June 12, 2026 — UN Watch welcomes today’s decision by UNRWA’s acting chief Christian Saunders to terminate the employment of 70 staff members in Gaza with immediate effect over their ties to Hamas. This long-overdue step was taken under mounting pressure created by UN Watch’s investigative work and the USAID Office of Inspector General’s referrals of more than 100 current and former UNRWA personnel linked to Hamas.
“Our sustained documentation of UNRWA’s deep infiltration by Hamas — including our UNRWA Terror Network map identifying at least 400 culprits — together with the USAID Inspector General, has finally forced the agency’s hand,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch. “For years UN Watch has exposed how UNRWA teachers, school principals, and other employees are intertwined with Hamas, including terror chiefs heading the staff unions. Today’s action, while welcome, is only a small beginning.”
UN Watch strongly condemns UNRWA’s accompanying official statement, which attempts to evade responsibility. The agency claims it asked Israel for evidence but received no response, yet it simultaneously insists the dismissals “do not constitute in any way a validation of the claims” and were taken only for “safety and security” reasons. This incoherent position — firing people while refusing to acknowledge why — reveals an institution still more interested in protecting itself and its Hamas-embedded workforce than in genuine neutrality or accountability.
The reaction of the UNRWA Staff Union makes the problem even clearer. The union — long run by Hamas-linked employees, including terror chiefs such as Suhail al-Hindi, as documented by UN Watch — immediately rejected the decision as “arbitrary” and “without a fair investigation,” demanding its immediate reversal and declaring it would remain in permanent session to fight it.
“When the very union representing UNRWA employees is controlled by Hamas operatives,“ said Neuer, “it is unsurprising they object to removing their comrades. This is not the behavior of a neutral humanitarian agency, but of an organization captured by a terrorist group.”
While welcoming the dismissal of these 70 individuals, Neuer emphasized that “this is a drop in the bucket. UN Watch’s research indicates at least 1,500 additional Hamas-affiliated staff in Gaza alone, out of thousands more across the agency. Firing a handful while the structural rot remains does nothing to restore credibility.”
“UNRWA cannot be reformed. It must be shut down,” Neuer concluded. “Donor countries should immediately end all funding and work with an agency that indoctrinates children with hate in its schools, and functions as a political and military arm of Hamas. The United Nations has failed. Member states must now act decisively to dismantle this dangerous agency.”
About UN Watch
UN Watch is a Geneva-based NGO that monitors the United Nations, promotes human rights, and fights for a more accountable UN.
