A federal investigation into alleged Hamas ties among UNRWA-linked personnel has prompted Trump administration officials to consider measures that could strip the agency’s protections and expose it to terrorism-related penalties.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A federal investigation into the United Nations Relief and Works Agency has expanded to nearly 1,500 individuals linked to the agency who are suspected of having terrorist ties, according to Trump administration officials cited in a Washington Free Beacon report.
The investigation is being conducted by the inspector general’s office at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Three administration officials told the outlet that the findings have intensified discussions inside the administration over whether to impose major penalties on UNRWA, including revoking its diplomatic immunity under U.S. law, allowing terrorism victims to sue the agency and formally designating it as a foreign terrorist organization.
UNRWA provides aid, education, health care, shelter and social services to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. U.N. officials and the U.N. Security Council have described the agency as central to the humanitarian response in Gaza, where the war between Israel and Hamas has produced a severe humanitarian crisis.
The Trump administration has accused UNRWA of links to Hamas, allegations the agency has strongly denied. The United States had long been UNRWA’s largest donor, but Washington halted funding in January 2024 after Israel accused about a dozen agency employees of participating in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and abducted 251 others into Gaza during the attack.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused UNRWA in October 2025 of becoming “a subsidiary of Hamas.” The United States designated Hamas as a terrorist organization in 1997.
The Free Beacon previously reported in April that UNRWA and other U.N. agencies were not cooperating with the federal probe into the agency’s alleged Hamas ties. One administration official told the outlet that USAID inspector general investigations are “coming in droves” and are supporting what the official called an “obvious parent-subsidiary relationship” between UNRWA and Hamas in Gaza.
“If UNRWA was not a UN organization, it’d be undeniably facing terrorist sanctions based on what USAID IG has uncovered,” the State Department official told the Free Beacon.
The official said the investigation could logically lead to a foreign terrorist organization designation. The official added that if the probe establishes that UNRWA “walks like an FTO, talks like an FTO and employs FTO personnel,” then “a case exists” to designate it as one.
Another official told the outlet that there “have to be consequences for UNRWA” over its alleged conduct before Oct. 7 and what the official described as the agency’s “ongoing refusal to respond to legitimate and pressing American inquiries.”
Any sweeping action against UNRWA would be unusual because the United States is both a member of the United Nations and the U.N.’s host country. The United Nations created UNRWA in 1949.
A foreign terrorist organization designation or terrorism-related sanctions could also sharply disrupt Palestinian refugee services. UNRWA is already facing a funding crisis, and further penalties could affect aid, schooling, health care and shelter operations across multiple countries and territories.
The potential measures now under review show how the Trump administration is escalating pressure on UNRWA as investigators examine whether agency-linked personnel had ties to Hamas or other terrorist activity. The agency continues to dispute allegations that it operates as an arm of Hamas, while U.S. officials say the findings under review may warrant consequences far beyond the funding cutoff imposed in 2024.
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