The United Nations Relief and Works Agency fired Hafez Mousa Mohammed Mousa, a principal of a school in Gaza who allegedly took part in the Oct. 7 attacks and whom the Trump administration blacklisted recently.
“Upon the allegations made against Mr. Mousa by the Israeli authorities, on April 16, 2024, UNRWA immediately placed him on administrative leave without pay,” Jonathan Fowler, a spokesman for the U.N. agency, told JNS. “Upon completion of the Office of Internal Oversight Services investigation, his appointment was terminated on Aug. 20, 2024.”
An investigative summary that the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Agency for International Development published in late February said that there is conclusive evidence that Mousa participated in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attacks as a captain in the Gazan terror group’s East Jabaliya Battalion.
He “coordinated communications with other suspected Hamas members during the Oct. 7 attacks while serving as an UNRWA school principal,” said the investigatory agency, which is independent of the State Department and is the chief oversight authority for tracking U.S. foreign aid.
The Washington Free Beacon reported, citing the State Department, that Mousa closed his UNRWA school early on Oct. 7 and contacted at least 20 Hamas operatives with orders to infiltrate Israel “with cars and weapons.”
A source familiar with the Office of Inspector General of USAID’s probe said that investigators asked UNRWA for names of employees that the U.N. agency fired for terror ties.
UNRWA refused to provide that information, or the names of its staff who participated in the Oct. 7 attacks, and has obstructed the office’s work, according to the source.
As a result, the State Department, which absorbed USAID last year, told UNRWA that Mousa was placed on the U.S. government’s blacklist and is ineligible to participate in all American foreign aid projects for 10 years.
That action appeared to mark the first time that Washington banned a U.N. humanitarian agency staffer from American-funded work due to terrorist activity.
“UNRWA declined to provide anything other than redacted termination notices,” the source told JNS. “This was totally useless to IG investigators working to ensure that employees terminated by UNRWA did not jump to other U.S. funded aid organizations.”
In October 2025, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chair of the House Committee on Overnight and Government Reform, said that UNRWA was obstructing U.S. oversight of ties between UNRWA staff and Hamas.
Fowler, the UNRWA spokesman, said that there were four outside probes of UNRWA since February 2024, including by the U.S. National Intelligence Council and the International Court of Justice.
“The four investigations, though launched at different times and taking different investigative perspectives, all dispute the Israeli government’s allegations concerning UNRWA employee neutrality and Hamas infiltration,” he told JNS.
He added that with Hamas’s control of Gaza, UNRWA has no choice but to interact with the terror group, which “does not mean the agency is collaborating with Hamas.”
Fowler told JNS that “UNRWA has consistently followed up with the Israeli authorities and requested information and evidence concerning any alleged wrongdoing on the part of its staff.”
“Thus far, Israel has not responded to UNRWA requests and has not provided any information that could be used to substantiate its claims—claims that continue to be repeated in the public domain,” he said. “Allegations are not evidence.”
A U.N. Watch report published in September suggested that Hamas had long appointed members to administrative and teaching roles at UNRWA. Photographs and other materials have also appeared to suggest overlaps between UNRWA and Hamas personnel.
Fateh Sharif, an UNRWA school principal and teachers’ union leader in Lebanon, was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024. Following his death, Hamas acknowledged his role as its top commander in Lebanon.
Fowler said that UNRWA has made “multiple requests” to U.S. agencies asking that they share evidence of possible UNRWA employee misconduct, so that the U.N. body can address them. UNRWA hasn’t received a response, Fowler said.
The source close to the U.S. investigation told JNS that UNRWA is being “disingenuous” when it seeks names and evidence from the United States when it has redacted names of its staffers.
“UNRWA’s terrorist ties are undeniable and President Trump was right to defund it, but the U.N. failed to act,” stated Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 3. “I am glad to see President Trump’s USAID Office of the Inspector General conduct its own investigations to ensure bad actors like UNRWA don’t get taxpayer dollars.”
