USAID Confirms Israeli Claims: More Than 100 UNRWA Staff in Gaza Connected to Hamas

By Hugh Fitzgerald | June 11, 2026

Jenin Camp by Pierre Marshall, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

When the IDF entered Gaza, it discovered that Hamas was using UNRWA facilities, including schools, hospitals, and mosques, to hide both combatants and weapons, including launching pads for missiles. Underneath UNRWA headquarters in Gaza, Hamas had built its main command-and-control center. The IDF also discovered lists of Hamas members, and could cross-check them against a list of UNRWA staff. These findings led Israel to charge that many members of UNRWA were also members of Hamas, and that dozens of UNRWA staff had taken part in the atrocities carried out on Oct. 7, 2023. UNRWA, of course, denied this.

Now an organ of the American government, USAID, has issued a report that confirms Israel’s claims. More on the USAID report on UNRWA staff members and their links to Hamas can be found here: “Over 100 UNRWA staff referred to US State Department over Hamas ties, Oct. 7 attacks,” by Danielle Greyman-Kennard, Jerusalem Post, June 9, 2026:

USAID has referred 101 current or former UNRWA staff members to the US State Department for suspension or disbarment over their role in the October 7 massacre and/or affiliation with Hamas, USAID’s Office of Inspector General reported last week.

School principals, teachers, security personnel, attendants, psychosocial counselors, and medical professionals employed by UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) were among those referred.

Some of them had already been referred by USAID (US Agency for International Development), but additional information was uncovered since the initial application.

Two deputy school principals at an UNRWA institution had served in senior positions in Izzadin al-Qassam, Hamas’s so-called military wing, USAID said.

An UNRWA employee served as a deputy company commander in the Ain Gallout/5th infantry battalion, it said. Another was a squad leader for the Khan Yunis Brigade/2nd infantry battalion, it added.

A deputy school principal served as a platoon commander in Hamas’s Nuseirat Battalion and had communications responsibilities during the October 7 massacre, USAID said. A teacher delivered two anti-tank missiles to a prescribed location for use in Hamas’s massacre, it said….

“We take these allegations very, very seriously, and any allegation of neutrality breach made against staff will be taken very seriously, and that includes alleged membership in sanctioned Palestinian groups,” an UNRWA spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy for neutrality breaches, and that means there is no place in UNRWA for terrorists, or criminals, or those who don’t share the values of the United Nations,” the spokesperson said.

Do you believe UNRWA, that it has “no place for terrorists or criminals” in its ranks? It certainly had quite a large and welcoming place for Hamas members serving on its staff in Gaza for many years. UNRWA also knew perfectly well that Hamas was using its facilities all over Gaza, especially its schools, to hide its members and their weapons, but continued to deny it even after the IDF presented evidence of Hamas’ presence in those facilities. The IDF uncovered an underground Hamas command, control, and data center directly beneath the Gaza City headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. There was no way that the UNRWA staff could not have known about that huge Hamas command-and-control center.

Now USAID has found clear and convincing evidence that 101 staff members of UNRW were also Hamas members, and among them were many who took part in the atrocities carried out on Oct. 7. It is no longer just Israel making this claim, but an agency of the American government. USAID has now referred those 101 current or former UNRWA staff members to the US State Department, which will decide on their suspension or disbarment over their role in the Oct. 7 massacre and/or affiliation with Hamas. But that is not enough. The US no longer provides any financial support to UNRWA. However, its allies continue to do so. The American government should share this USAID report with them, showing the extent of the UNRWA staff links to Hamas, in an attempt to persuade them to also halt their donations to UNRWA.

In addition, the United Nations splits its refugee operations into two completely separate organizations. One is UNRWA, dedicated exclusively to Palestinian refugees, and another, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), handles every other refugee population in the world. Why should the Palestinian refugees be singled out for such special treatment? Why not close down UNRWA and fold its operations into the UNHCR? Furthermore, why should the status of Palestinian refugee be inheritable, so that the grandsons and great-grandsons of the original refugees, of whom there remain about 20,000, should themselves receive international support as “refugees”? The American government should demand that refugee status should not be inheritable; instead of five million so-called “Palestinian refugees” receiving lifetime support, only the 20,000 Palestinians now living who became refugees in the period of late 1947 to 1949 would qualify.