None of the above statements address the stark reality that UNRWA is not a humanitarian institution. It is a political vehicle that sustains the conflict and shelters terrorism under the flag of the UN. Unlike the UNHCR, UNRWA’s mission is not to resolve the plight of Palestinian refugees—it is to preserve it.

By promoting a so-called “right of return” into Israel—a euphemism for invasion and destruction—for all Palestinian refugees from 1948 and their descendants, UNRWA undermines any prospect of peace. This narrative is drilled into children in UNRWA schools,[1] where maps erase Israel, “martyrdom” is glorified, and incitement to hatred is systemic.

UN Watch has documented dozens of UNRWA teachers who publicly praise Hamas, share antisemitic hate speech, and glorify terrorism on social media.[2] UNRWA’s international officials, and its senior local managers, have also routinely met with terrorist groups in Lebanon and Gaza, mutually praised each other for “cooperation,” and described each other as “partners.”[3]

Even more incriminating, 12% of UNRWA employees in Gaza—1,462 individuals—are members of Hamas or other designated terrorist groups according to official data from May 2025 published by the Israeli government. This includes 15% of UNRWA’s senior educators.[4]

On October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out the largest massacre of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust. Multiple UNRWA employees took part in the atrocities that day[5]—something even the UN could not ignore. One of these was Faisal Ali Mussalem Al-Naami, an UNRWA social worker caught on camera kidnapping the body of Yonatan Samerano from Kibbutz Be’eri after he had escaped the Nova music festival.[6] The UN ultimately fired nine UNRWA employees for their roles in October 7.[7]

This isn’t just about rogue UNRWA employees—it’s systemic in the organization.

In February 2024, the IDF uncovered a Hamas command center built directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza City headquarters, powered by UNRWA’s own electricity supply.[8] UNRWA buildings have long served as storage sites for rockets and cover for tactical tunnels and other terrorist infrastructure.[9] For more information on UNRWA’s complicity with Hamas, see UN Watch’s The Case Against UNRWA.[10]

Moreover, despite its claims to be essential to humanitarian aid operations in the Gaza Strip, UNRWA handled only 16.4% of the humanitarian aid entering Gaza as of December 2024.[11] Meanwhile, nine other UN agencies—including WFP, UNICEF, and WHO—have been delivering aid without being infiltrated by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.[12] These agencies operate globally, in every conflict zone on earth, with professionalism, neutrality, and effectiveness.

Even UNRWA’s own Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, has admitted that others could fulfill its role.[13]

The evidence is overwhelming. UNRWA has become a vehicle for radicalization, terrorism, and anti-Israel indoctrination. It is an obstacle to peace, not a facilitator of aid.

All governments committed to peace and real humanitarian aid must stop funding this institution. The necessary infrastructure for aid delivery already exists within other international agencies that are not compromised by terrorist affiliations or ideological agendas.