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UNRWA staffer list includes many names of Hamas terrorists

In one example, UNRWA driver Mohammad Abi Itiwi participated in the kidnapping of Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli diplomat Amir Weissbrod said.

UNRWA, Gaza
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) building in Rafah, the southern Gaza Strip, Nov. 29, 2021. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees sent a list of workers to the Israeli Foreign Ministry last week that included many names of Hamas terrorists, Amir Weissbrod, the deputy director-general of the ministry’s division for U.N. and international organizations, said on Sunday.

“Nothing new under the sun with UNRWA,” Weissbrod wrote on X.

The diplomat noted that some of the employees were identified as terrorists by Israel as far back as 2011. “Nothing was done about them, and they are still employed,” he continued.

Weissbrod provided three examples of terrorists on the UNRWA payroll.

• Mohammad Abi Itiwi, according to the diplomat, is listed as an UNRWA driver despite the fact that he “participated in the kidnapping of young Israelis from a bomb shelter near Kibbutz Re’im” during the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7, 2023. Abu Itiwi was killed by the Israel Defense Forces in August 2024, yet he is “still employed [and] getting money,” Weissbrod wrote.

• Naji Abdullah Abu Aziz is “a school principal by day and a member of the chemical manufacturing unit of Hamas by night,” the diplomat continued.

“I showed information about [Aziz] a few times in my account, and this information was also given to U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Tom Fletcher,” Weissbrod said.

Israel informed the U.N. about Aziz’s terrorist activities in 2011 and again in 2024, yet he is still employed by UNRWA, the Israeli official lamented.

• Khalid Said El-Masry was also listed as an UNRWA school principal, despite Israeli security forces finding a tunnel beneath his school. Weissbrod informed the agency about El-Masry’s membership in the Hamas terrorist organization, but his employee status has not been removed, he added.

These are “just a small sample from many examples to show why any responsible government that doesn’t want that its taxpayers money get to Hamas should not fund UNRWA,” Weissbrod said.

The diplomat accompanied his post with four photos demonstrating the terrorists’ double membership with UNRWA and Hamas.

The Trump administration told Congress last week that the UNRWA should be dismantled due to its terror ties.

“The administration has determined UNRWA is irredeemably compromised and now seeks its full dismantlement,” the U.S. State Department wrote to Congress, according to The Washington Free Beacon.

An internal U.N. probe found that at least nine UNRWA staffers “likely or very likely” participated directly in the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel, which has long maintained that the agency has terrorist ties, says that many more UNRWA staffers are tied to Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups.

On July 31, victims of Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist attacks, and their relatives, filed suit against UNRWA for aiding the groups and fueling terrorism.

The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages, both compensatory and punitive, from the United Nations agency, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

A similar case has been playing out since last year in federal court in Manhattan.

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