by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief
(Worthy News) – A U.S. foreign-aid watchdog has referred more than 100 current and former UNRWA employees for possible suspension or debarment after finding evidence tying them to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in Israel and/or affiliation with Hamas’s military wing.
The U.S. Agency for International Development Office of Inspector General said its ongoing investigation has referred UNRWA personnel to the State Department over alleged participation in the attacks or links to Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades. The office previously reported that 101 current or former UNRWA staff had been referred for suspension or debarment consideration, and a new investigative summary said additional former UNRWA staff were proposed for debarment over alleged Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad ties.
Among the cases cited by the watchdog was a former UNRWA social worker alleged to have served as a Hamas military communications operative and to have participated in the kidnapping of a civilian from Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7. Other cases involved former UNRWA personnel accused of links to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The findings add to years of mounting scrutiny over UNRWA, the U.N. agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, after Israel alleged that some of its employees took part in the Oct. 7 attacks. UNRWA has previously said it condemns the Oct. 7 massacre “in the strongest possible terms” and has pointed to U.N. investigations into allegations against agency personnel.
Still, the latest U.S. watchdog findings will deepen questions in Washington over whether American-backed humanitarian channels in Gaza have been adequately protected from terrorist infiltration. For Israel and its supporters, the report reinforces a long-standing concern: that aid meant for civilians has too often operated in the shadow of Hamas.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has expressed sorrow and ordered an immediate investigation after a fire erupted early Wednesday at a nursery for newborns in a major government hospital in Pakistan’s capital, killing more than a dozen babies.
The U.S. Supreme Court is again being asked to step into the national fight over whether states may require the Ten Commandments to be posted in public school classrooms, as new challenges from Louisiana and Texas push the issue toward a potentially major First Amendment showdown.
A U.S. foreign-aid watchdog has referred more than 100 current and former UNRWA employees for possible suspension or debarment after finding evidence tying them to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in Israel and/or affiliation with Hamas’s military wing.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday declaring a national emergency aimed at protecting the U.S. bulk-power system from foreign-made equipment that the White House says could expose America’s electric grid to cyber intrusion, sabotage, or supply-chain disruption.
A monk has been killed, and two other people seriously wounded after unidentified assailants attacked residents of one of Ukraine’s best-known Orthodox monasteries in the war-torn Donetsk region, church officials said.
Hungary’s new government has asked prosecutors to investigate suspected fraud and financial misconduct surrounding the previous administration’s purchase of nearly 17,000 Chinese ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic, while dozens of senior diplomats are being removed from their posts.
Ukraine has dramatically widened drone attacks deep inside Russia, striking military aircraft, vessels, energy facilities and warehouses, while Russian troops edged closer to the strategic eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk amid reports that Moscow could mobilize hundreds of thousands of additional soldiers.