After a string of scandals, will it finally be the end of the line for the United Nations’ Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) now that Israeli hostages have claimed they were held at one of its refugee camps? Don’t hold your breath.
Israel’s Channel 13 network reported on Wednesday that during their 471 days in captivity—which ended in the ‘gift’ of terrorist-branded goodie bags—Emily Damari, 28, Romi Gonen, 24, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, “were hidden for part of the time in U.N. shelters.”
The terrorists
took advantage of the U.N. camps to house the kidnapped women there, knowing that the Israel Defense Forces would not attack the compound, thereby providing security for themselves as well.
UNRWA, some of whose staff were reportedly involved in the October 7th pogrom and now meet “regularly” with Hamas terrorists, runs eight such camps in Gaza. It is not yet clear which were—if not are—used to hold Israeli hostages.
Richard Goldberg, who is senior adviser to the Washington pro-Israeli Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the revelation means
We need to stop thinking about UNRWA as merely a supporter of Hamas and start internalising the extent to which the agency is a front for Hamas.
American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader added that “this should tell you indisputably what UNRWA really does in Gaza: assist Hamas.”
The news came just one day after the British government—which has handed millions of pounds in taxpayer cash to the U.N. agency—urged Israel “not to endanger UNRWA’s ability to operate.”
The mood could not be more different in Washington, where newly inaugurated president Donald Trump halted funding to UNRWA, among other foreign assistance programmes, on his first day in office. Elise Stefanik, his pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has bashed the organisation as a “den of antisemitism.”
The freed hostages are currently undergoing medical tests and receiving additional vitamins due to poor conditions during their time in captivity. A total of 33 Israeli hostages are set to be released, in exchange for 737 Palestinian prisoners (Jihadi terrorists among them), in the first stage of the ceasefire—so long as it holds up.
UNRWA representatives did not respond to our request for comment.
