UNRWA is mandated by the UN General Assembly to provide services to Palestine refugees in five fields of operations, pending a just and lasting solution to their plight. Palestine refugees within the Agency's fields of operations are excluded from the mandate of UNHCR, which has a resettlement mandate.
Suspicions that Hamas and other militant groups wielded untoward influence over the United Nations Relief and Works Agency spread worldwide this week after Israeli intelligence reported that a dozen employees of the U.N. agency allegedly participated in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
However,For years, relief workers and the Israeli military have reported weapons caches occasionally found in schools operated by UNRWA, the organization that provides schooling, healthcare and other aid to Palestinian refugees in Gaza.
In 2014, part of the parking lot at the agency headquarters in Gaza began sinking, likely from a Hamas tunnel dug beneath. “No one talked about what was causing the collapse,” a former UNRWA official said, “but everyone knew.”
The U.S. is among 18 countries that have suspended funding to the U.N. agency.
