Israeli October 7 victims sue UNRWA for ‘playing key role’ in October 7 attacks

“The work of UNRWA could not be carried out without sustained contributions from state and regional governments, the European Union and other government partners, which represented 93 per cent of all contributions in 2023.”

Top contributors: US, Canada, France, Germany, EU, UK, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway and Japan.

In 2023, 42 per cent of the Agency’s total pledges of US$ 1.46 billion came from EU member states, who contributed US$ 606.8 million, including through the European Commission. The United States, Germany, the EU, and France were the largest governmental donors, contributing a cumulative 56 per cent of the Agency’s overall funding.

The status of these countries regarding their funding of UNRWA: the US only suspended funding until March 25, 2025; Canada suspended funding for a few months, but that funding is now resumed; France suspended funding for at least the first half of this year; Germany suspended funding briefly but also resumed it; the EU suspended funding for only a month; the UK is not willing to make a “snap decision” to resume funding, so it is currently halted; Sweden suspended but quickly resumed funding along with Canada; the Netherlands halted funding; Norway actually boosted funding; and Japan suspended but resumed funding.

Let’s hope that these top contributing countries rethink their funding of jihad terrorism.

“Israeli Terror Victims Sue UNRWA for Leading ‘Billion-Dollar Money Laundering Operation That Funded Hamas,’” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, June 24, 2024:

Israeli victims of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack are suing the United Nations’ leading aid organization in the Gaza Strip, alleging that the organization “led a billion-dollar money laundering operation that funded Hamas” and enabled the terror group to carry out last year’s unprecedented strike that killed more than 1,200.

The lawsuit was filed on Monday in New York federal court by MM~LAW on behalf of more than 100 Israeli victims of the Oct. 7 attack. It alleges that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the internationally funded aid delivery group in Gaza, spent years laundering billions in donor cash to Hamas, “greatly reducing humanitarian aid provided to Gaza residents and playing a key role in the October 7 attack,” according to a summary of the lawsuit provided to the Washington Free Beacon.

The lawsuit comes just months after Israel provided evidence that at least a dozen of UNRWA’s employees participated in Hamas’s terror massacre and that nearly 200 more double as “hardened” militants for the Iran-backed group. UNRWA employees were also found to be hiding Israeli hostages in their home, and the Israeli military has shown proof that many of the militants killed on the battlefield were UNRWA employees.

The allegations forced the United States and other Western donors to cut millions in funding to the aid group. The United States is UNRWA’s largest donor and has contributed upward of half a billion dollars since 2022, when President Joe Biden entered office and restarted taxpayer funding that the Trump administration had frozen over concerns about UNRWA’s ties to Hamas and promotion of anti-Semitic educational materials.

The lawsuit claims that “UNRWA facilitated construction of Hamas command and control centers, attack tunnels and underground bunkers under UNRWA headquarters, UNRWA schools, medical clinics, and offices.” Israel has discovered multiple Hamas command bases beneath the Gaza Strip’s hospitals, civilian homes, schools, and other civilian centers…..