On January 20, 2026, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk accused Israel of “attacking aid groups and UN actors who are trying to help” after Israeli forces demolished the Jerusalem headquarters of the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees. The UN framed the demolition as illegal, citing international law and claiming its agencies are protected “from any form of interference” under diplomatic immunity. However, extensive evidence demonstrates that UNRWA functions not as a neutral humanitarian organization but as a vehicle for Islamist terror against Israel.
At least 24 senior UNRWA staff were confirmed as members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad while acting as educators in UNRWA schools in Gaza. Approximately 10 percent of UNRWA’s 13,000 Gazan employees are known to have ties to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, with nearly half having relatives in the terror groups. UNRWA employees directly participated in the murder and abduction of Israelis on October 7, 2023. Former UNRWA teachers’ union chief Suhail al-Hindi occupies a senior leadership role in Hamas.
In August 2025, the UN acknowledged the participation of at least nine UNRWA personnel in the October 7th massacre in Israel. They were dismissed only once the information went public. UNRWA has openly acknowledged its terror ties for years. In 2004, then-UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said: “Oh, I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll, and I don’t see that as a crime.”
According to court documents, UNRWA gave Hamas access to its sites for weapons storage and command centers and helped funnel US dollars to Hamas via its employees. UNRWA’s involvement extended to abductions. Two Israeli hostages who were rescued reported being held captive by UNRWA employees. Another UNRWA worker was filmed transporting the body of a murdered Israeli to Gaza on October 7th.
Independent investigations have found that UNRWA schools promote antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and Islamist supremacy, often in coordination with the Palestinian Authority. UNRWA teachers have been glorifying the October 7th massacre in classrooms. UNRWA’s collaboration with Islamic terror groups was well documented even before the October 7th attack.
One example of the radicalization occurring in UNRWA schools comes from UNRWA student Mohammad Ali Khalil, 14, who stated: “We’ll redeem Al Aqsa with our blood and expel the Jews. We kill the Jews.”
Despite these facts, the UN has claimed diplomatic immunity from prosecution for its involvement in terrorism. But the U.S. Justice Department has argued that UNRWA does not automatically enjoy UN immunity. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton stated, “Any official-act immunity would not protect any person who was complicit in the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas.”
International law protects civilians, but that protection disappears when civilians directly participate in hostilities or act on behalf of armed groups, conditions that UNRWA employees have met. Civilian buildings also lose protection when they are used for military purposes and when their destruction offers a concrete military advantage. An organization that radicalizes children, employs terrorists, and participates in attacks on civilians may not retain civilian or humanitarian protection under international law.
The UN is not a neutral referee in this conflict. Its agency employs terrorists, helps fund terrorism, radicalizes children, and has participated in attacks on Israeli civilians. Yet instead of confronting those failures, the UN defaults to accusations and claims of immunity, something an organization that enables terror should never be granted. The evidence reveals an institution that has abandoned its humanitarian mission in favor of serving as an infrastructure for terrorism, all while demanding protection under the very international laws it systematically violates.
