UNRWA’s acting chief, Christian Saunders, dismissed 70 staff members in the Gaza Strip on Friday over their ties to Hamas, according to UN Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog that monitors the United Nations.
UN Watch welcomed the move by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, saying it came after growing pressure from the group’s investigations and inquiries by USAID regarding more than 100 employees allegedly linked to the terrorist organization.
“This is a drop in the ocean. There are another 1,500 Hamas members receiving salaries from the UN,” said UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer.
Neuer said his organization’s work helped force UNRWA to act. “Our ongoing documentation of Hamas’ deep infiltration of UNRWA, including the ‘terror network’ map we developed, identifying at least 400 operatives, alongside referrals by USAID’s inspector general, finally forced the agency to act,” he said.
Neuer argued that “today’s step is only the beginning.”
“For years, UN Watch has exposed how teachers, school principals and other UNRWA employees are embedded in Hamas activity, including terror chiefs who head their staff unions,” he said.
While welcoming the dismissals, UN Watch sharply criticized UNRWA’s official statement accompanying the move, saying the agency was trying to avoid responsibility.
According to UN Watch, UNRWA said it had asked Israel for evidence but had not received a response. The agency also insisted the dismissals “do not in any way constitute confirmation of the allegations” and were taken only for “safety and security” reasons.
UN Watch said UNRWA’s current position, dismissing employees while refusing to formally acknowledge the reason for the move, creates an internal contradiction in its efforts to present itself as neutral. The watchdog said the conduct points more to institutional self-protection than to a willingness to fully confront Hamas infiltration.
UNRWA’s staff union, which UN Watch says has long been led by employees linked to Hamas, including terror figures such as Suhail al-Hindi, opposed the dismissals. The union called the move “arbitrary,” said it was carried out “without a fair investigation,” demanded its immediate reversal and announced an emergency meeting to fight the decision.
“When the union representing UNRWA employees is itself controlled by Hamas operatives, it is no surprise they oppose removing their colleagues,” Neuer said. “This is not the conduct of a neutral humanitarian agency, but of an organization captured by a terrorist group.”
Neuer said the dismissals, while welcome, leave many others inside the system.
“This is a drop in the ocean,” he said. “UN Watch research points to at least 1,500 additional staff members linked to Hamas in Gaza alone, out of many thousands more across the agency as a whole. Firing a handful of employees while the structural rot remains does nothing to restore credibility.”
Neuer vowed that UN Watch would continue pressing for UNRWA to be dismantled.
“We will not allow UNRWA to be rehabilitated. It must be shut down,” he said. “Donor states must immediately end all funding and refuse to work with an agency that incites children to hatred in its schools and functions as a political, and at times even logistical, arm of Hamas. The UN has failed. Member states must act now with determination to dismantle this dangerous agency.”
UN Watch has long campaigned against what it describes as anti-Israel bias in UN institutions. In January of last year, the organization published a report alleging that UNRWA had formed an alliance with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The report said the agency, which employs tens of thousands of people and oversees an annual budget of $1.5 billion, allowed the terrorist groups to influence its policies and activities.
Neuer said at the time that “UNRWA’s senior management knowingly employs people connected to Hamas terrorist activity.”