The House Oversight Committee is again asking Secretary of State Antony Blinken to explain why the Biden administration has restarted "humanitarian aid" programs that directly fund Islamic terror in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
In January funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, was paused after it was confirmed a number of UNRWA workers -- including doctors and teachers -- were directly involved in the October 7 massacre. Further, the Wall Street Journal reports a significant percentage of UNRWA workers have direct ties to terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.
At least 12 employees of the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency had connections to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and around 10% of all of its Gaza staff have ties to Islamist militant groups, according to intelligence reports reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Six United Nations Relief and Works Agency workers were part of the wave of Palestinian militants who killed 1,200 people in the deadliest assault on Jews since the Holocaust, according to the intelligence dossier. Two helped kidnap Israelis. Two others were tracked to sites where scores of Israeli civilians were shot and killed. Others coordinated logistics for the assault, including procuring weapons.
Of the 12 Unrwa employees with links to the attacks, seven were primary or secondary school teachers, including two math teachers, two Arabic language teachers and one primary school teacher.
Hamas regularly uses UNRWA schools, humanitarian zones and medical sites to launch rocket attacks and to store weapons.
Despite these facts, the Biden administration has restarted American taxpayer funding of the program with no oversight or prevention mechanisms to keep money and aid out of the hands of terrorists -- prolonging the war.
“As we wrote previously, the Committee is concerned by the Biden Administration’s decision to renew funding for UNRWA. The underlying concerns have not changed. The Committee wrote to you on February 16, 2024, seeking documents and information related to our concerns. On May 31, 2024, the State Department provided an inadequate response to that letter, and documents that do not fully address the Committee’s concerns,” Oversight Chairman James Comer released in a statement this week. “As such, we are reiterating our document requests along with an additional request that the State Department make Julieta Valls Noyes, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration available for a transcribed interview.”
"The Committee is concerned by the Biden Administration’s decision to renew funding for UNRWA. The underlying concerns have not changed. Reports emerged in February that several UNRWA staff participated in the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks by Hamas. More recent reports show Hamas compounds located under UNRWA buildings in Gaza City. The previous administration suspended funding for the agency because it assessed that UNRWA was “irredeemably flawed,'" Comer added in a letter to Blinken. "UNRWA has for years used its classrooms to promote violence, hate speech, jihad, martyrdom, and antisemitism. Rockets have been found on multiple occasions in UNRWA schools. Following the October 7 terrorist attacks, there was widespread enthusiasm for the attacks by UNRWA teachers and staff."
During the Trump administration all aid to UNRWA was cut off.
On Tuesday, Blinken announced an additional $400 million in taxpayer funding for Palestinians, a majority of whom believe the October 7 attacks were justified and correct. Further Hamas, which receives overwhelming support in Gaza and the West Bank from the "civilians," is still holding Americans hostage after massacring more than 40.
BILLIONS - Democrats have lost their minds.
— Ron M. (@Jewtastic) June 12, 2024
US Secretary of State proudly declares no one on Earth has given the Palestinians more money than the USA.
The Palestinians who supported Saddam Hussein, hate America, and celebrated on 9/11. 👌🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/vrtpG3an8Y
Meanwhile, the Defense Department has admitted the aid distributed by the U.S. in Gaza has been stolen.