Category: UNRWA

The IRS Helps UNRWA Fund Hamas While nations drop support for UNRWA over terror funding, the IRS lets the cash flow.

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SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-irs-helps-unrwa-fund-hamas/?; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

[Pre-order a copy of Daniel Greenfield’s first book, Domestic Enemies, by clicking here. Orders will begin shipping on April 30th.]

Before Ismail Haniyeh became the leader of Hamas, he was a teacher at UNRWA.

The UN agency dedicated welfare agency for the Arab Muslim colonists who call themselves “Palestinians” had long since become a terrorist front.

“I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll,” a former UNRWA Commissioner General said, “and I don’t see that as a crime.”

A former official boasted “that UNRWA was raising thousands and thousands of cadres” and “first and foremost, we can mention Ismail Haniyeh, who was an UNRWA teacher, and so was Dr. Talal Naji, Secretary-General of the PFLP-GC.” The PFLP is also a terrorist group.

UNRWA’s Gaza staff has their own union. In a 2012 election, a pro-Hamas bloc won the support of most of the union with 25 out of 27 seats on a union board. When there was talk of reforming the UNRWA by removing Hamas members from its ranks, the editor of a Hamas paper wrote that, “they are all members of the ‘resistance,’ in its various forms.”

How true is that? Israeli intelligence estimates that 1 in 4 male UNRWA employees had ties to Hamas and 1 in 2 employees had family ties to terrorists.

On Oct 7, multiple UNRWA employees took part in the attack. One UNRWA teacher was recorded boasting “I’m inside, I’m inside with the Jews!" We have female hostages, I captured one!” while using the Islamic term for sex slave. At least 30 UNRWA employees took part in other parts of the attack, running an ops room, carrying antitank missiles and invading Israel.

Within a group of 3,000 UNRWA staff members, there was widespread celebration on Oct 7.

Hamas kept key assets, including a data and command center, under UNRWA’s headquarters and has regularly deployed its rockets at UNRWA sites and hidden in UNRWA supplies. Hamas has taken UNRWA supplies so that aid and funding for it supplies the Islamic terror group.

As a result of these revelations and more, a number of nations paused their funding to UNRWA.

But despite evidence of Hamas ties, UNRWA USA continues to retain nonprofit status in the U.S. Providing material aid to Hamas, a sanctioned terrorist group on the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list, is illegal, and illegal acts violate tax code regulations.

Survivors of the Oct 7 attacks including Lishay Lavi, who had to watch along with her daughters while Hamas kidnapped her husband, David Bromberg, who hid for 7 hours while watching others at the Nova music festival being massacred by the terrorists, and Natalie Sanandaji, an American woman who had been in Israel for a wedding and then had to run for her life, along with other survivors have sued UNRWA USA.

The lawsuit alleges that “UNRWA USA collects donations in the United States and then transfers nearly all its funds to UNRWA” which “redistributes those funds to Hamas members on their payroll, some of whom are directly engaged in acts of terrorism, including but not limited to, the October 7th atrocities.”

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) depends heavily on two international NGOs, UNRWA USA and another in Spain. UNRWA USA, despite cultivating an image as an aid group, features veteran anti-Israel activists on its board, including Nadia Saah, Lara Friedman, and Shibley Telhami. The latter took part in an event with a Hamas apologist.

UNRWA USA’s report claims that it was able to provide $3.8 million to UNRWA in 2022. That money and previous funds raised by UNRWA USA could have bolstered Hamas before Oct 7.

While survivors and their families are entitled to sue UNRWA USA, the IRS has failed to act.

This is in sharp contrast to the IRS' pursuit of pro-Israel groups under the Obama administration.

Z Street, one of those groups, launched a legal battle that exposed the administration’s targeting of political opponents.

Z Street’s founder, Lori Lowenthal Marcus, told Front Page Magazine that, “One of the excuses given to Z Street by an IRS official was that the IRS had to make sure we were not ‘engaged in terrorism’ because we mentioned ‘terror’ in our mission statement." The part of Z Street’s mission that mentioned terror? ‘We will not engage with, negotiate with or appease terrorists.’”

The IRS however appears to have a different position on terrorism. And that may explain its actions.

Among the more recent targets for the IRS has been the David Horowitz Freedom Center, which spent 5 years battling the federal agency because we reported on Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Front Page Magazine has previously exposed the role that the IRS has played in enabling funding and political support for Hamas in the United States by 501(c)(3) charity nonprofits.

But UNRWA may be the single largest beneficiary of the IRS’ willful blindness to Islamic terrorism.

What is true of UNRWA is also true of much of the United Nations.

“Hamas is not a terrorist group for us, as you know, it is a political movement,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths recently argued.

But UNRWA is unique as a UN agency that functions as an employment agency for Hamas, providing it with facilities and aid, and political cover for its campaign to kill Jews.

The lawsuit by the survivors of the Hamas attacks states that, “UNRWA USA was fully aware that UNRWA employees supported, engaged in, and celebrated the terrorist attacks on October 7, but Defendant continued to fund UNRWA and its terrorist activities before, during, and after the October 7 terrorist attack.”

Even as the investigation of UNRWA goes on, the IRS has expressed no interest in examining the nonprofit status of UNRWA USA as they did Z Street, the David Horowitz Freedom Center and other conservative and pro-Israel groups who have been targeted for political reasons.

The Freedom Center and Front Page Magazine will not stop holding the IRS and those organizations, like UNRWA, that aid and abet terrorism against America and Israel accountable.

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Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh was an UNRWA official and schoolteacher

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/03/hamas-chief-ismail-haniyeh-was-an-unrwa-official-and-schoolteacher; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

It is no secret that UNRWA textbooks for schoolchildren are littered with antisemitic material and incitement to terrorism. After the revelation that UNRWA employees actively took part in the October 7th savagery against Israelis, UNRWA’s Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini, stated that UNRWA employees were “part of the social fabric in Gaza,” and that Hamas was part of that social fabric."

Now, in a new revelation that further reveals a longtime, entrenched pattern of terrorism in UNRWA, “Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was once an UNRWA teacher and former agency official.” Yet many Western countries, including Canada, are funding the terror-linked agency.

“Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was a UNRWA teacher – former agency official,” by Tzvi Joffre, Jerusalem Post, March 19, 2024:

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has worked as a teacher for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the past, former UNRWA official Ahmad Oueidat revealed in an interview with the London-based Al-Hiwar TV channel last week, according to footage translated by MEMRI.

“First and foremost, we can mention Ismail Haniyeh, who was a UNRWA teacher, and so was Dr. Talal Naji, Secretary-General of the PFLP-GC,” said Oueidat.

The former UNRWA official said that UNRWA has tried “to constitute a national platform and a long arm, which would enable the Palestinian refugees to obtain their rights and first and foremost – the Right of Return.”

“There used to be quality in [UNRWA’s] education. The teaching cadres really embraced their profession. However, the Americans and the Zionists did not look at this favorably. This is why they insisted on interfering. We, as UNRWA employees, had to deal with that interference. My final position was head of the Professional Development and Curriculum Unit, so I had to deal with it directly. They forced us to remove pictures and various topics….

Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter is raising money for Hamas-linked UNRWA

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/03/kamala-harris-stepdaughter-is-raising-money-for-hamas-linked-unrwa; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Given the Biden regime’s increasingly obvious and ongoing betrayal of Israel, this is hardly a surprise.

“Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter Ella Emhoff publicly raises money for relief group allegedly tied to Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel,” by Jon Levine, New York Post, March 16, 2024:

The stepdaughter of Vice President Kamala Harris is publicly raising cash for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency — even as the United States has cut funding to the group over its members’ alleged participation in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel.

Ella Emhoff — whose father is second gentleman Doug Emhoff — posted a link to UNRWA’s English-language fundraising page on her personal Instagram, and only removed it after a Post inquiry to the White House.

“We urge Ms. Emhoff to go on the website of UN Watch and read our reports showing how UNRWA teachers and school principals systematically promote and encourage jihadi terrorism and the slaughter of Jews,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of the nonprofit United Nations watchdog.

Emhoff — whose father is second gentleman Doug Emhoff — is currently posting a link to UNRWA’s English-language fundraising page on her personal Instagram.

“I am sure that if Ms. Emhoff understood how UNRWA promotes hatred and murder, she would stop raising money for them, and she would apologize to victims such as Ayelet Samerano, whose 21-year-old son Yonatan was kidnapped on October 7th by an UNRWA social worker.”

UNRWA, the largest employer in Gaza, has long faced international criticism for its close ties to Hamas, which has ruled the enclave since 2006.

President Trump cut U.S. aid to the organization in 2018 — a decision President Biden initially reversed when he took office.

Under Biden’s leadership, at least $730 million found its way to UNRWA’s coffers…

IDF Releases Audio Recordings of UNRWA Staff Who Participated In October 7

They called captive women “sabaya” - "sex slave" - in keeping with Islam.

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SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/idf-releases-audio-recordings-of-unrwa-staff-who-participated-in-october-7/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:


One should beware of any group in the West which is advocating for the reinstatement of funds to UNRWA. Hamas and UNRWA are intertwined, as UNRWA’s Commissioner General, Philippe Lazzarini has indicated: “Our employees are part of the social fabric in Gaza and its ecosystem. And as part of the social fabric in Gaza, you also have Hamas.” As more information comes to light to expose the Palestinian propaganda war against Israel, in a rare move, Israel has chosen to release actual audio recordings of UNRWA staff who participated in the savage October 7 attacks, to further impress the truth about UNRWA upon a willfully blind world.

In the Times of Israel, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari reveals that “young women were treated like animals” and were referred to in Islamic terms as “sabaya”:

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in an evening press conference says that despite the “difficult content,” the military chose to release the audio recordings of UNRWA staff who participated in the October 7 onslaught, to “remind and not forget.”

“The massacre committed by Hamas on October 7 is the most documented massacre in history. Hamas terrorists filmed their own cruelty. As time goes by, more and more testimonies are revealed, more intelligence every day,” he says.

“You can hear how the terrorists entered Israeli territory, participated in the massacre, and terror, and captured ‘sabaya.’”

He explains that in one of the recordings, a Hamas terrorist, who worked as a teacher at a UNRWA school in Deir al-Balah, tells his friend that he captured a sabaya, a term used by Islamic State jihadists that means sex slave.

“Sabaya” is a term in Islam that describes women and children as the property of a Muslim man. It also means slave and handmaiden. The most difficult use of “sabaya” was by ISIS terrorists, who called the captured Yazidi women this, Hagari says.

Hagari points out what Jihad Watch has been reporting for years: that Islamic doctrine permits the rape of infidels, despite the big lie that it is un-Islamic to rape, assault and take infidel women as sex slaves.

“And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess.” Quran 4:24″

“The Apostle of Allah(may peace be upon him) sent a military expedition to Awtas on the occasion of the battle of Hunain. They met their enemy and fought with them. They defeated them and took them captives. Some of the Companions of Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) were reluctant to have relations with the female captives because of their pagan husbands. So, Allaah the exalted sent down the Qur’anic verse “And all married women (are forbidden) unto you save those (captives) whom your right hand possess.” Abu Dawud 2155

“But (now) enjoy what ye took in war, lawful and good”  Quran 8:69

“And marry those among you who are single and those who are fit among your male slaves and your female slaves…”Quran 24:32

In normative Islam, combatants and civilian adherents are indistinguishable. This is also why it is not perplexing that UNRWA employees would engage in atrocities alongside Hamas.

Al wala wal bara is a concept in Islam involving loyalty and disavowal. It demonstrates the persistent hostility of sharia-adherent Muslims against unbelievers. A Muslim is instructed under this concept to disavow disbelievers out of loyalty to Islam, which is consistent with the Qur’an’s instruction:

O you who believe, do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends of one another. He among you who takes them for friends is of them. Indeed, Allah does not guide wrongdoing people. (Qur’an 5:51)

Similarly, the world is divided in two in Islam: the dar al-harb (the House of War) and the dar al-Islam (the House of Islam). It is a religious duty to turn the House of War into the House of Islam via conquest and subjugation.

Islam, therefore, is constantly at war with disbelievers. As part of this war, Muslim men are permitted in Islam to abuse sex slaves (“those whom your right hands possess”) as they wish. War is prescribed in Islam for all believers. Those who engage in it love death for the sake of Allah and believe in vast rewards in the afterlife.

A man asks Muhammad “which of men is the best?” Muhammad replies that it is the man who is always ready for battle and flies into it “seeking death at places where it can be expected.” (Sahih Muslim 20:4655)

The words of Muhammad: “I would love to be martyred in Allah’s Cause and then get resurrected and then get martyred, and then get resurrected again and then get martyred and then get resurrected again and then get martyred.” (Sahih Bukhari 52:54)

Let those who sell the life of this world for the next fight in the way of Allah. Whoever fights in the way of Allah, whether he is killed or victorious, on him we will bestow a great reward. (Qur’an 4:74)

Indeed, Allah has bought from the believers their lives and their wealth, because the garden will be theirs, they will fight in the way of Allah and will kill and be killed. (Qur’an 9:111)

As far as Hamas is concerned, the rape, murder, savagery against Israelis was validated by history and Islamic texts. The Islamic State perpetrated the same barbarism against the Yazidis just a few years ago. Muslim persecution of Christians in Africa as jihadists rampage through villages is no different. The jihadists are influenced by the example of what Muhammad did to the Jewish tribes of Medina — the Qaynuqa, Nadir, and Qurayza — when they rejected him as a prophet.

According to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs:

The most dramatic events occurred in 627, when the men of the Qurayza tribe were massacred and the women and children were sold into slavery.

…. The slogan heard until today (at least in Hamas processions) is “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya Yahud, jish Muhammad sa Ya’ud!” (Khaybar, Khaybar, o Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!). It has become a symbol of the Jews’ subjugation in Arabia only six years after the Hegira.

Muhammad only demonstrated tolerance of Jews and Christians when he was in Mecca, prior to his journey to Medina. In Medina, after he was rejected by Jewish tribes, he began waging jihad against them. He drove the Jews out of their lands unless they became Muslim or paid the jizya. Under Islamic law, hostilities toward Jews and Christians are an ongoing responsibility for the Islamic community, since the chronologically later texts abrogate earlier ones, and Muhammad fought against Jews and Christians later in his career. October 7 is a warning to the world to awaken in understanding of what jihad entails and how jihadists operate–whether it be from stealth activity to extreme barbarism. Israel stands on the front lines of an Islamic war against it and other infidel states; propaganda is being skillfully employed as a means to conceal the true character of this war. Iran, Hamas and all jihadists seek to annihilate the Jewish state, and after that, they intend to continue working toward their  goal of global conquest. As MEMRI states, Hamas “defines itself as part of the Islamic resistance movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of a worldwide Islamic caliphate.”

Mosab Hassan Yousef, a.k.a. Son of Hamas, revealed the stark truth and warned about Hamas at the UN:

If Hamas is not defeated in Gaza it will inspire many groups around the globe. They will see that few thousands of savages can blackmail the International Community, the superpowers and bring democracies to their knees. Many of them are watching now. Many of them are very happy about how the world is responding and many of them are satisfied to see the state of confusion and fear and anxiety. This is the time to get united because if Israel fails in Gaza all of us, we will be next .

Islamic expansion by means of violence in Africa and the Middle East; the jihad against Israel; the hijrah into Europe and the UK (with the full range of societal ills and threats to national security) are all consistent with 1400 years of Islamic history.

A massive army of mujahideen, who celebrate “martyrdom” are actively warring against Israel and its citizens. Many Palestinian combatants are masquerading as innocent civilians, with a generous pay-for-slay program to motivate a steady recruitment to jihad. Fatah and Hamas have also been openly promoting child martyrdom.

The West collectively does not comprehend the fact that Palestinian leaders and Hamas are willing to see their own people, including children, die as “martyrs,” and that many Palestinian civilians are likewise willing to die, since they are deemed “Allah’s chosen — the Shahids, i.e., Martyrs for Allah.” What the Palestinian leadership has indoctrinated into its people is very different from what it has been telling the international community.

The intimidating pro-Hamas protests throughout the West are merely the beginnings of a bold expansion of the Islamic jihad against Israel. Recall that the first countries on October 7 to blame Israel for the savage attacks because of its so-called “occupation” were Wahhabi Saudi Arabia, Muslim Brotherhood-supporting Qatar, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Any perceived weakness in ability to control disruptive pro-Hamas protests in the West will result in emboldenment and escalation. The unspeakable barbarity of October 7 serves as a warning. There is no possible way to appease the Palestinian “resistance” because it demands  that Israel disappear. Hamas supporters in the West are being manipulated and harnessed in order to advance the Islamic supremacist revolution. Yet they, too, will be one day be turned on as infidels.

More than 30 UNRWA employees actively participated in October 7 jihad massacre

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/02/more-than-30-unrwa-employees-actively-participated-in-october-7-jihad-massacre; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

UNRWA must be shut down. If it continues after this, the entire UN should be shut down.

“More than 30 of UNRWA’s employees actively participated in October 7,” Jerusalem Post, February 16, 2024:

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced on Friday the details of 12 UNRWA employees who are members of Hamas and participated in the October 7 massacre.

Gallant told reporters that Israel has intelligence that more than 30 of the organization’s employees actively participated in the murder spree, assisting in the kidnapping of civilians and soldiers.

He presented data, according to which 12% of the 13,000 UNRWA employees are connected to terrorist organizations in Gaza, and 1,468 of the employees are even active in them.

Gallant presented a video to the reporters taken by security cameras at the Erez crossing on October 7, in which you can see how the medics of the Palestinian “Red Crescent” helped to evacuate a wounded Nukhba terrorist.

The UNRWA employees hold various innocuous positions in the organization from social worker to school counselor, to math teacher….

Israel discovers six drones amid UNRWA donations entering Judea and Samaria this week

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/02/israel-discovers-six-drones-amid-unrwa-donations-entering-judea-and-samaria-this-week; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

UNRWA is actively aiding the “Palestinian” jihad, and must be shut down.

“i24NEWS Exclusive: Israel finds 6 drones amid UNRWA donations that entered the West Bank this week,” by Matthias Inbar, i24News, February 15, 2024:

UNRWA donations that entered the West Bank from Jordan through the Allenby Bridge earlier this week contained six military drones, i24NEWS’ military correspondent Matthias Inbar has learned from Israeli security sources.

The drones have been confiscated by Israeli security forces….

Hamas Data Center Found Directly Under UNRWA’s Gaza Headquarters

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/02/hamas-data-center-found-directly-under-unrwas-gaza-headquarters; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

The IDF has just uncovered a massive Hamas data center, located directly underneath UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters. This news comes soon after the revelation that at least 12 UNRWA staff members took part in the Hamas atrocities on October 7, that 3,000 UNRWA teachers sharing a Telegram channel exulted in the October 7 attack, and 12,000 members of UNRWA were found to have links to terrorist groups. UNRWA has decided to use Lie Direct, denying any knowledge of that vast Hamas data center underneath UNRWA’s headquarters. More on this latest blow to UNRWA’s reputation can be found here: “Directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters, IDF uncovers top secret Hamas data center,” by Emanuel Fabian, Times of Israel, February 10, 2024:

Beneath the Gaza Strip headquarters of the controversial United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known commonly as UNRWA, the Hamas terror group hid one of its most significant assets, the Israeli military has revealed.

The subterranean data center — complete with an electrical room, industrial battery power banks and living quarters for Hamas terrorists operating the computer servers — was built precisely under the location where Israel would not consider looking initially, let alone target in an airstrike.

The Israelis knew before October 7 that Hamas had built tunnels under Gaza, but had no idea of their enormous size, depth, and extent. The IDF has now discovered that there are between 350 and 450 miles of tunnels under Gaza, a far more extensive network than had previously been believed. Israelis have also located at least 5,700 separate shafts leading to Hamas’s underground network, with more being unearthed by the IDF every day. The tunnels are far bigger than what Israel had believed: the IDF has been posting pictures of these mammoth tunnels, many of which are sufficiently wide to accommodate small trucks. The tunnels are built much deeper than the Israelis had assumed, to an average depth of 50 meters. At that depth they can withstand airstrikes, and have to be destroyed from within, which requires the IDF soldiers to go into the tunnels, filled with boobytraps and explosives left by Hamas, and sometimes with Hamas operatives lying in wait for them —  a hellish undertaking, but not an impossible one. The IDF now estimates it has destroyed, or rendered inactive, between 20 and 40 percent of all Hamas tunnels, mostly in the northern Gaza Strip. 

The revelation of the server farm comes amid other accusations of UNRWA collusion with the Gaza-ruling terror group and the entanglement of the UN body that provided welfare and humanitarian services for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 and 1967 wars and their descendants.

Israel last month accused 12 staff with the UN Palestinian refugee agency of taking part in the October 7 massacre by Hamas-led terrorists, who killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in the murderous rampage.

Since the allegations became public late last month, UNRWA has seen many of its top donor countries announce funding freezes, leading to concerns that the agency could stop operating in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East within weeks.

Israel’s first revelations about the 12 UNRWA staff members who took part in the atrocities were enough for sixteen countries to suspend their aid to UNRWA, which will not be renewed until UNRWA completes an investigation of itself, to determine how many of its staff are implicated in terrorism, whether by taking part in terror attacks, or praising and encouraging them, or knowingly allowing Hamas to use UNRWA schools, hospitals, and other facilities to hide weapons and combatants. If the investigation by UNRWA turns out to be insufficient, or even a whitewash, those countries will not resume that aid that UNRWA insists is “critical” for the people of Gaza.

But the IDF’s recent discovery of the Hamas data center while UNRWA is under increased scrutiny appears to be merely a coincidence….

UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters is located in Gaza City’s upscale Rimal neighborhood, an area that the IDF had previously operated in, dismantling the local Hamas battalion, and from which it had withdrawn its troops.

Acting on ISA intelligence, the forces discovered a tunnel shaft near a UNRWA school, leading to an underground terrorist tunnel beneath UNRWA’s main headquarters. The forces found electrical infrastructure inside the tunnel connected to UNRWA’s main HQ, suggesting it was supplying the tunnel with electricity—generated by the fuel provided through humanitarian aid….

UNRWA says it had “no idea” that a huge Hamas data center was located right underneath UNRWA’s headquarters in Gaza. How likely is that? Didn’t anyone from UNRWA notice the unusually large amount of electricity that was supposedly being used by its headquarters, but which was also being used to fuel operations at the gigantic data center underneath? Surely this would have put UNRWA on notice that there was something going on below its Gaza City headquarters.

And what about the amount of water that Hamas’ data center used — water that came from the same pipes that supplied UNRWA’s headquarters? Either the electricity, or the water usage, or both, would have alerted UNRWA that there was a Hamas center underneath. Besides, UNRWA knew for years about the vast network Hamas’ tunnels. It knew about the nearly 6,000 entrances to those tunnels. It must have seen the heavy machinery being used to build those tunnels, the massive bulldozers, the trucks bearing away the mountains of earth that were being excavated. There is no way that Hamas could have hidden its gigantic Big Dig, carried out over many years and in every part of the Strip, from UNRWA. And surely the very best place for Hamas to place its data center, so critical to its war efforts, would be directly underneath UNRWA’s headquarters in Gaza, always full of civilians whose presence would, Hamas assumed, have prevented Israeli airstrikes.

This vast area was not only the data center for Hamas, but also contained a treasure of information about the tunnel network, including their exact location, size, depth, and the placement of possible boobytraps and explosives. The IDF has been analyzing all this information, which should help it to uncover still more tunnels and entrances to them (5,700 of these have already been found by the IDF). Furthermore, it was also used as a weapons storehouse; with weapons hidden in the data center’s offices, all of which have now been removed by the IDF. Should we also ask UNRWA how it was that headquarters staff never noticed anyone entering or exiting the entrances to the underground data center? Or did those staff members notice, but were instructed never to discuss what they saw?

The discovery by the IDF of the Hamas data server facility directly underneath UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters is conclusive evidence that UNRWA was knowingly helping Hamas hide its men, weapons, command centers and data services. It will be fascinating to see how UNRWA attempts to convince its ever more doubtful donors that it simply had no idea that Hamas had these tunnels underground, and was shocked — shocked! —  as much as anyone to discover that Hamas had built such a facility right under the innocent, unsuspecting noses of UNRWA’s staff.

Shut it down: 3,000 UNRWA teachers praised bloodthirsty Oct. 7 jihad murderers

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/01/shut-it-down-3000-unrwa-teachers-praised-bloodthirsty-oct-7-jihad-murderers; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Why should this pro-jihad organization receive a penny from the U.S. or anyone else?

“UN’s Palestinian teachers are EXPOSED as Hamas-loving jihadis: Congress learns of Telegram club of 3,000 educators praising ‘holy warriors’ who left Israelis ‘dead in hell’ on Oct. 7,” by James Reinl, Daily Mail, January 30, 2024:

UN aid chiefs in Gaza faced mounting pressure on Tuesday, with revelations that 3,000 of their Palestinian teachers shared messages supporting Hamas militants as they raped and murdered civilians in Israel on Oct 7.

Hillel Neuer, the director of UN Watch, which monitors the UN, told Congress about his probe into a Telegram channel for UN teachers in Gaza that was filled with posts by members praising the bloodbath.

The hearing came in the wake of revelations that 12 employees of the UN’s Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, took part in abductions and killings on Oct 7, prompting the US and others to halt funds for the agency.

Neuer on Tuesday told the House subcommittee that the disgraced UN agency should be permanently ‘dissolved.’

"It's time to stop pretending that UNRWA is at all fixable,’ said Neuer.

‘The very existence of a Telegram group of 3,000 teachers in which members celebrate Hamas atrocities is but a symptom of the core problem of UNRWA: its true purpose is to undo the 1948 creation of Israel.’

His investigation dug into a Telegram chat group used by UNRWA teachers for sharing files, staff names, and curriculum materials.

But it was also replete with posts celebrating Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, praising the terrorists who raped and murdered civilians as ‘heroes.’

Users on the channel glorified the ‘education’ the terrorists received, shared photos of dead or captured Israelis, and called for hostages to be executed.

Some comments were posted within minutes of Hamas militants beginning their wave of rapes, murders, and kidnappings on Oct 7.

Safaa Mohammad Al Najjar, a group administrator, praised the act of 'resistance' and the ‘holy warriors’ who broke into Israeli territory.

She decorated her texts with a red heart emoji.

Another member of the group commented on a photo of a dead Hamas fighter.

‘Our martyrs are in heaven,’ he wrote, adding that Israel’s ‘dead are in hell.’

Users also regularly share videos, photos, and messages inciting ‘Jihadi terrorism’ and openly celebrate the massacre and rape of civilians by Hamas terrorists, Neuer told the panel….

Biden’s Senior Director for Intelligence Programs on NSC was UNRWA official while it was aiding Hamas

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/01/bidens-senior-director-for-intelligence-programs-on-nsc-was-unrwa-official-while-it-was-aiding-hamas#; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

There is still more indication of which side the Biden regime is really on, and thoroughly infiltrated the Washington establishment is. That infiltration advanced under cover of charges of “Islamophobia” against anyone who suggested there might be a problem.

“Biden Appoints Former Palestinian UNRWA Official as Director of NSC Intelligence,” Saudi Press, n.d. (thanks to J. Michael Waller):

Real diversity without exemption: President Joe Biden on Friday appointed Palestinian-American attorney Maher al-Bitar, who served on President Barack Obama’s National Security Council as Director of Israeli and Palestinian Affairs and as deputy to Samantha Power, to be the new director of the NSC intelligence service.

Al-Bitar’s new job is an important day-to-day connective tissue between the intelligence community and the White House.

A graduate of Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, al-Bitar received a Master of Science in Forced Migration from Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Center on a Marshall scholarship and has worked with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jerusalem.

Maher al-Bitar has served as Foreign Affairs Officer in the Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, and holds a Juris Doctor from Georgetown Law, and is a member of the Maryland Bar. He was Rep. Adam Schiff’s top legal adviser and played a key role in the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump, alongside Dan Goldman, who worked as the impeachment manager’s top lawyer. Goldman called al-Bitar “a brilliant lawyer.”…

Time To Shut Down UNRWA?

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/01/time-to-shut-down-unrwa#; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Now twelve countries — the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, Estonia, Austria, and Japan — have decided to suspend their payments to UNRWA, prompted by the revelation that at least a dozen members of that Agency’s staff took part in the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. That’s a start, but it is not enough.

It is time to consider shutting down UNRWA, which as an organization has long been a willing collaborator with the terror group. It has never protested when Hamas has used its facilities, including schools, to hide its weapons and fighters, and to use as redoubts, from which to launch rockets into Israel, or to fire on the IDF; UNRWA resources have been diverted by Hamas, to be used to build tunnels; thousands of UNRWA teachers have celebrated online the October 7 attacks. More on the UNRWA teachers who instruct their pupils in violent antisemitism, have long been implicated in supporting Hamas, and have recently been exulting in the Hamas terror attacks on October 7, can be found here: “The UN’s Terrorism Teachers,” by Hillel C. Neuer, The Free Press, January 28, 2024:

…On Friday [Jan. 26], UNRWA said it had fired some employees accused of participating in Hamas’s October 7 invasion of Israel. Over the weekend, in an unprecedented rebuke of the agency, more than a dozen of its donor states, including the U.S., Germany, France, Japan, Canada, and the Netherlands, announced their suspension of funds to UNRWA. The latest revelations follow numerous other reported cases of UNRWA’s entanglement with Hamas terrorism….

UNRWA’s main task is political. Palestinians who work for UNRWA call it “the main political witness to our cause.”

UNRWA exists to perpetuate Palestinians as refugees. Unlike the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which since World War II has been responsible for the welfare of all refugees in the world, and has worked toward their resettlement and relocation, UNRWA deals only with the Arabs from Palestine and has a completely different objective.

Millions of Palestinians who attend UNRWA schools in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and Gaza are taught that the war of 1948 is not over, and that they have a “right of return”—meaning, to dismantle and take over Israel….

UN Secretary General António Guterres said he was “horrified” to discover that UNRWA employees participated in the invasion and massacre of October 7. But in reality, their actions merely translated UNRWA’s core message into action.

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to what thousands of UNRWA teachers in Gaza say among themselves.

Earlier this month, Middle East analyst Eitan Fischberger discovered a Telegram chat group of UNRWA educators in Gaza. “Let me tell you,” he quipped on X, ”they sure do love Hamas and October 7th.” Saying he didn’t have the time to examine the material, he tagged me to ask if we could take it on.

We did. What we found was a chat group of 3,000 UNRWA teachers with discussions about when to expect their next UNRWA salaries mixed together with messages, photos, and videos celebrating the Hamas massacre of October 7, and other acts of terrorism.

My colleagues at UN Watch worked diligently with professional Arabic translators to sift through more than 249,000 user posts in the chat group.

Tomorrow [Jan. 30] I will present our findings before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, at a joint hearing of its subcommittees on oversight and international organizations. It’s not pretty. UNRWA teachers routinely encourage and promote Hamas terrorism.

Here’s a sneak preview:

Safaa Mohammad Al Najjar, a computer teacher at UNRWA’s Moghraqa Prep Girls School in Rafah, Gaza, is a highly active administrator in the Telegram group, and routinely praises terrorism against Jews. On the morning of October 7, at 7:33 a.m., Al Najjar excitedly celebrated the Hamas massacre. Sharing video footage of the attacks, she exclaimed, “Resistance on the roof of settlers’ houses,” and she added a red heart emoji. She praised the Hamas “holy warriors” (Mujahideen) as they massacred, mutilated, and raped Israelis.

Another administrator of the Telegram group is UNRWA English teacher Abdallah Mehjez. According to his LinkedIn profile, he previously worked for the BBC. On October 13, Mehjez shared a message from the Hamas Interior Ministry, urging Gazans to stay put and ignore Israeli messages calling on them to evacuate for their safety. In other words, an UNRWA teacher was doing Hamas’s work urging Gaza civilians not to leave harm’s way, and instead to effectively serve as human shields.

Despite all their required “neutrality” training, other UNRWA teachers serving as administrators in the group also have no compunction about declaring their support for the murder of Jews.

On the morning of October 7, administrator Israa Abdul Kareem Mezher, an elementary school Arabic language teacher in Gaza, posting under the username “Sun of Sunshine,” ecstatically celebrated the Hamas terrorists: “May Allah keep their feet steady and guide their aim”; “pray for the Mujahidin”; “God protect them and bring them back safe.” As news of the Hamas atrocities began to spread, Mezher cheered, “God is the greatest.”

When a group member wondered what these “heroes” were “brought up on,” Mezher replied: “They imbibed jihad and resistance with their mothers’ milk.” At 7:17 a.m., commenting on a photo of a dead Hamas terrorist, he wrote: “Our martyrs are in heaven, and their [Israeli] dead are in hell.” A few days later, on October 10, this UNRWA teacher endorsed a call for Hamas to execute their Israeli hostages….

American audiences are regularly assured by UNRWA officials that the agency operates “on the principles of neutrality, impartiality, independence and humanity.” So wrote Elizabeth Campbell in The New York Times, in April 2019, when she served as UNRWA’s chief lobbyist in Washington. Today, she’s the Biden administration’s deputy assistant secretary of state dealing with refugees.

But as the Telegram group shows, this is simply not the case. In my report before Congress, I will identify more than 25 other UNRWA teachers in the chat group who celebrated jihadi terrorism and the murder of Jews….

UNRWA is so riddled with Hamas supporters that after completing their investigations, the Western donors may well call — as they ought to have done decades ago — for a wholesale cleaning of the Augean stables, or ideally, to shut down UNRWA altogether. Every staff member who has praised terrorism, beginning with the 3,000 teachers on that Instagram account who praised Hamas for its October 7 attack, should be discharged. Every staff member who knew about Hamas’ use of UNRWA facilities, and its theft of humanitarian aid in Gaza, and said nothing about either, should be let go. This slimmed down organization, ideally having replaced its bloated Palestinian staff — 13,000 in Gaza alone — with a much smaller professional staff consisting largely of non-Palestinians, should assume a different task: not to keep increasing the aid agency’s rolls but to steadily shrink them, by no longer treating the status of “Palestinian refugee” as an inherited trait, to be passed down to children, grandchildren, and so on, ad infinitum. Put a full stop to that policy, announcing that from now on no one will be added to the list of “Palestinian refugees.”

That’s what I’d call a good start.

IDF uncovers, destroys explosive devices in UNRWA kindergarten

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/01/idf-uncovers-destroys-explosive-devices-in-unrwa-kindergarten#; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Meanwhile, the Biden regime is defending, and funding, UNRWA.

“IDF uncovers, destroys explosive devices in UNRWA kindergarten in West Bank,” Jerusalem Post, January 4, 2024:

Israeli security forces located and found and confiscated weapons and hundreds of explosive devices in the West Bank Nur Shams refugee camp inside a building that also housed a kindergarten run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), according to a Thursday IDF statement.

In addition, many weapons and other pieces of military equipment were confiscated and destroyed, besides those found in the kindergarten.

The operation was a joint effort between IDF reservist teams, the Shin Bet, and the Border Police and was the result of a 40-hour-long counter-terrorism operation in which hundreds of buildings were searched and hundreds of suspects were questioned, leading to 11 arrests.

Trapped building, car, and explosives surrounding

Forces searched a booby-trapped building, the lower floor of which housed a UNRWA-run kindergarten. The building also contained an operating system connected to explosives surrounding the building as well as on access roads leading to it.

A booby-trapped vehicle was also found near the building. It was destroyed along with the infrastructure inside the building and the explosives in the surrounding area….

Biden regime spokesman defends UNRWA despite mounting evidence of its aid to Hamas’ jihad against Israel

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Over the years at Jihad Watch, and particularly since Oct. 7, we have provided extensive evidence of UNRWA’s collaboration with Hamas, as well as its teaching of jihad and Jew-hatred in UNRWA schools. The fact that the Biden regime does not wish to defund or even upbraid UNRWA in light of all this evidence is yet another indication of which side it is really on.

“John Kirby: UNRWA does important work,” by Elad Benari, Israel National News, January 5, 2024:

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Thursday defended the work of UNRWA, the UN agency for “Palestinian refugees” after a reporter suggested the US should rethink its support for the UN agency in the wake of reports that its facilities are being used by Hamas terrorists.

“UNRWA does important work. In fact, they’re doing a lot of heavy lifting right now in terms of trying to get food, water, medicine to the people of Gaza, all up and down the Strip. They’re doing a lot of work, and they’re doing it in harm’s way — very much so in harm’s way,” said Kirby.

“You can’t hold them accountable for the depredations of Hamas and the way Hamas uses civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, for command and control, for storage of weapons, for the holding of hostages,” he added.

When the reporter noted that the US gave UNRWA a billion dollars, Kirby replied, “They do good work in Gaza, and they are important to helping get the humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza. And we’re grateful for that work that they’re doing, very much in harm’s way.”

He added, “I will let them speak to whatever concerns they have over Hamas’s activities and the degree to which that they feel obligated to speak out or not.”…

However, it is also notorious for its anti-Israel activities. During the 2014 counterterrorism Operation Protective Edge, Hamas rockets were discovered inside a school building run by UNRWA.

Likewise, a booby-trapped UNRWA clinic was detonated, killing three IDF soldiers. Aside from the massive amounts of explosives hidden in the walls of the clinic, it was revealed that it stood on top of dozens of terror tunnels, showing how UNRWA is closely embedded with Hamas.

More recently, it was discovered that a hostage kidnapped by Hamas to Gaza was held for 50 days in the attic of an UNRWA teacher.

Last year, the US increased its financial support for UNRWA, reaching a record $223 million, an increase of $16 million on the previous year….

BREAKING: UNRWA EXPOSED with support for Hamas; IDF’s Relentless Operations | TBN Israel

TBN Israel's Yair Pinto reports from the frontlines of the Israel-Gaza War while on active duty with the IDF. Pinto reveals new details about UNRWA's involvement with Hamas, from teachers' indoctrination to aiding the terrorist group. Additionally, he discusses the IDF's relentless pursuit of Hamas operatives and their success in neutralizing terror infrastructures. Stay up-to-date with the latest developments here on TBN Israel.

Israeli forces find explosives hidden inside UNRWA bags during raid of Gaza schools

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/12/israeli-forces-find-explosives-hidden-inside-unrwa-bags-during-raid-of-gaza-schools#; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

The IDF discovery of explosives hidden inside UNRWA bags during raids of northern Gaza schools is nothing new. Hamas’ use of hospitals and schools to launch military operations is part of the Palestinian terrorist strategy of exploiting human shields.

The NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence established the limitless extent to which Hamas’ uses human shields — including artillery fire from heavily populated areas, schools, hospitals and mosques. They also hide jihad operatives in these areas.

Most of the world ignores these atrocities while the UN continues to aid and abet Hamas and Palestinian propaganda by continuously diverting attention away Hamas’ routine practice of using human shields. The tally of dead civilians in Gaza is caused intentionally by Hamas and blamed on Israel.

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center also conducted research on Hamas’ abuse of the civilian population as human shields and its use of Gaza’s civilian facilities for terrorism. See HERE.

Hamas even encourages Gazan kids to pose beside its weapons and rocket launchers “for souvenir photos,” while teaching them to be “proud of the resistance.”

Many of the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists in Gaza who “were located hiding inside the Gaza schools…took part in the October 7 massacre” of Israeli citizens.

The vital necessity of Israel’s war in Gaza becomes ever more apparent.

“IDF finds explosives in UNRWA bags, clashes with Hamas in Gaza schools,” Jerusalem Post, December 25, 2023:

Israeli forces found dozens of explosive devices hidden inside UNRWA bags during a raid of northern Gaza schools where the IDF received intelligence of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists hiding, the Israeli military said Monday.

Forces from the IDF’s Nahal Brigade raided al-Rafaa and Zavaha schools in the areas of Daraj and Tuffah, where they also found a host of Kalashnikov rifles and 15 explosive belts ready for use.

IDF: Terrorist killed after shooting anti-tank missile at forces

During an exchange of fire with terrorists, a cell fired an anti-tank missile at Israeli forces, the IDF said, before being gunned down by a precision strike missile….