Overview
- The U.S. Agency for International Development inspector general transmitted a report adding 101 current or former UNRWA staff to referrals for suspension or debarment, raising the total individuals flagged by the probe to 108 according to multiple U.S. reports on Monday.
- The inspector general alleges the newly referred staff included school principals, teachers, security personnel, psychosocial counselors, attendants, and medical workers who either participated in the Oct. 7 attacks or had ties to Hamas’s al‑Qassam Brigades.
- Those referred will be considered by the State Department for suspension or debarment, a process that can bar people from U.S.‑funded aid work for up to 10 years and may lead to future criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.
- The report intensifies administration and congressional efforts to cut or restrict U.S. support for UNRWA and explore measures such as stripping legal protections or seeking a terrorism designation, moves that would reshape how U.S. aid to Gaza is routed.
- UNRWA and U.N. officials reject broad characterizations of agency-wide infiltration, noting a 2024 U.N. review that led to nine firings but said investigators could not independently corroborate all Israeli intelligence, and the inspector general’s probe remains active with a possible eventual scope of roughly 1,500 people, a development that could affect humanitarian access for civilians in Gaza.