The United Nations has obstructed US investigations into staff members who participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks against Israel for months, the House Oversight Committee chairman wrote
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Monday formally petitioned the United Nations to hand over a tranche of internal documents related to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) employment of more than a dozen terrorists who participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Committee chairman Rep. James Comer (R., Tenn.) said his investigation will detail how “U.S. taxpayer funds sent to UNRWA have been linked to terrorism.”
Comer stated in his letter that UNRWA has obstructed these investigations for months, failing to provide federal oversight officials with unredacted documents “related to its staff’s involvement” in terrorism.
“Despite repeated U.S. oversight inquiries, UNRWA, either on its own or at the direction of U.N. Headquarters, has refused to provide necessary documentation,” Comer wrote to U.N. secretary-general António Guterres. “This is unacceptable, as the lack of transparency greatly undermines U.S. efforts to assess risk and obstructs the oversight responsibilities of Congress.”
The U.S. Agency for International Development’s inspector general—the chief oversight body responsible for tracking American foreign assistance—has been conducting its own probe into the Hamas-affiliated UNRWA employees, according to information Comer obtained. UNRWA has to this point refused to play ball, allegedly instructing partner agencies involved in the Hamas investigation to obstruct the IG’s efforts.
“The U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), at UNRWA’s request, has redacted valuable information” on a dozen staffers who were fired in January 2024 for aiding Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault, further obfuscating “the extent of current and former UNRWA staff’s role in these attacks,” according to Comer.
The behind-the-scenes wrangling has prompted Comer’s committee to get involved. The U.N. must now turn over a litany of unredacted internal documents by Nov. 10, including “all letters, notices, or other communication sent by UNRWA to its staff members accused of assisting with or directly participating in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel who were ‘terminated in the interest of the Agency’ following the investigation by OIOS.” Should the U.N. fail to provide the documents, Comer and the committee could use their subpoena power to compel the organization to do so. The chairman has threatened to use that power on similar matters in the past, like when Biden administration officials blocked probes into UNRWA.
Comer also wants a fully unredacted version of the U.N. OIOS’s investigation into every staffer accused of participating in Hamas’s attack, including a detailed list of every UNRWA employee investigated in the wake of Oct. 7 for having ties to Hamas.
Comer says he remains concerned that Hamas-tied UNRWA staffers could move to other U.N. agencies and continue to benefit from American taxpayer funding.
“Without full accountability, we cannot confirm that implicated individuals—regardless of whether UNRWA or the U.N. generally believes they are culpable—have been removed from their positions or that vetting mechanisms are in place to prevent future threats,” the lawmaker wrote. “The risk remains that current or former UNRWA employees tied to terrorism could resurface within other U.N. entities or NGOs funded by U.S. tax dollars.”
A senior U.S. diplomat briefed on the USAID IG’s ongoing investigative work said both the U.N. and UNRWA will have to come clean about their Hamas-linked staffers one way or another.
“They don’t accept excuses from the U.N. while conducting their investigations, nor should they, where American taxpayer dollars are at stake,” the source told the Free Beacon.
The Free Beacon first reported in August that the IG’s office found evidence of Hamas systematically stealing U.N. aid in Gaza, including by placing terrorist operatives inside U.N. facilities. The IG’s ongoing investigations center on instances in which the terror group “commandeered U.N. aid trucks,” embedded terrorist operatives in “U.N. agencies or at U.N. facilities,” and ensured humanitarian goods were “directly delivered to Hamas officials.”
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