UN Support of Terrorism: Hamas, Hostages, and the UN's RWA

On October 7, 2023, the Islamist terrorist group Hamas conducted a series of surprise terror attacks across Israel. Supernova Sukkot Gathering, a music festival held during the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret, took place near kibbutz Re'im, which is less than fifteen minutes from the border with the Gaza strip.

At the attack on the open-air psy trance music festival, where many of the festival go-ers had reportedly taken psychedelics, 364 civilians were killed, many, many more were wounded, and at least 40 hostages were also taken.

Among them, and still missing, was Noa Argamani, whose terminally mother still hopes to hug her only child one last time before she dies of brain cancer, according to media reports.

“I saw this beautiful woman with the face of an angel and eight or 10 of the fighters beating and raping her,” recalled Yoni Saadon, a 39-year-old father of four, in an interview with the UK’s Sunday Times. “She was screaming, ‘Stop it already! I’m going to die anyway from what you are doing, just kill me!’

“When they finished, they were laughing, and the last one shot her in the head,” he said.

Saadon had pulled the body of another woman who had also been shot in the head over himself to hide, and smeared her blood on himself so it looked like he was dead, too.

“I will never forget her face,” he said. “Every night I wake to it and apologize to her, saying, ‘I’m sorry.’“

Saadon eventually felt safe enough to flee to the perimeter of the site, where he joined with others who had fled to hide within the trees and bushes. That’s when he witnessed another young woman who was being attacked, and resisted having her clothing stripped by two Hamas gunmen.

“They threw her to the ground, and one of the terrorists took a shovel and beheaded her,” Saadon told the UK outlet. “And her head rolled along the ground. I see that head, too.”

Video has emerged showing two perspectives of the attack on the Nova festival that Noa was abducted from and which Yoni Saadon still has nightmares of. In the first, festival goers hide inside of porta-potties. They had to stay completely silent as the terrorists were practically on top of them.

The second video shows the Hamas firing into the same porta-potties during the assault. The victims in the first video spent over 8 hours hiding in the porta-potty; miraculously, they survived the attack.

The United Nations, after close to eight weeks of silence, eventually put out a statement about the pogrom.

“There are numerous accounts of sexual violence during the abhorrent acts of terror by Hamas on 7 October that must be vigorously investigated and prosecuted,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “Gender-based violence must be condemned. Anytime. Anywhere.”

On January 26, 2024, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that Israel had provided it with information alleging that some of its employees had directly participated in the attacks, including one who was present at Re’im - a UNRWA elementary school teacher.

A hostage who was released during the brief 2023 Israel-Hamas ceasefire, who had been held for nearly 50 days in Gaza, said that he was held prisoner in the attic of an UNRWA teacher, and barely provided food or medical attention.

UNRWA was originally established by the UN General Assembly in 1949 to provide relief to refugees from Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, known in Arabic as “the Nakba”, which means catastrophe.

According to a report published in The Wall Street Journal on January 29, 2024, Israeli intelligence suggests that some UNRWA employees were directly involved in the attacks, with others facilitating kidnapping, munitions, and logistics support. Intelligence estimates suggest that at least 1,200, 10% of UNRWA's 12,000 employees in Gaza, have links to Hamas.

According to the report, an UNRWA Arabic teacher was identified as a Hamas commander who participated directly, and an UNRWA social worker took the body of an Israeli soldier to Gaza, as well as coordinated the distribution of trucks and munitions.

A math teacher that photographed a hostage, along with another teacher who is believed to have carried an anti-tank missile, were implicated in attack preparations; another UNRWA employee established an operations room for Palestinian Islamic Jihad following the attack.

Three other employees, including an Arabic teacher, were instructed by Hamas to arm themselves near the border. Yet another, an elementary school teacher, was in Re’im where the Nova Massacre described above took place.

After this news broke, the United States halted all funding for UNRWA pending further investigations, along with allies including Germany, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Italy, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Estonia, Austria, Romania, New Zealand, Latvia, and Sweden.

In 2022, the United States was the single largest donor to UNRWA, with an overall contribution of $344 million USD. The Trump administration had stopped funding UNRWA in 2018, with then Secretary of State and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo stating, "most Palestinians under UNRWA's jurisdiction aren't refugees, and UNRWA is a hurdle to peace," but the Biden administration re-initiated that funding shortly after taking office.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini tweeted out his support of an investigation into the matter after the news broke about his employees.

In November of 2023, Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva, "I do believe there is a deliberate attempt to strangle our operation and paralyze UNRWA operations."

UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma, who spoke to reporters around the same time by video from Amman, Jordan, said, "The communications network in Gaza is down because there is no fuel, and this makes it impossible to manage or coordinate humanitarian aid convoys."

On Saturday, February 10, 2024, the IDF and the Shin Bet security service said they discovered a data center facility in a complex of tunnels beneath UNRWA's central headquarters in the Gaza Strip, including electrical service from the UNRWA building itself.

Just to be explicit: the IDF showed journalists that the UNRWA headquarters itself was supplying the Hamas data center beneath it with electricity. The IDF said that the tunnel was 765 yards long and 20 yards deep.

An IDF Colonel shows an electrical supply running from the UNRWA HQ down into the underground Hamas Complex

In addition to the server farm, the tunnel complex beneath the UNRWA headquarters contained a kitchenette, a meeting room with office chairs, two bathrooms, and living quarters with several mattresses for terrorists operating the server farm.

The Hamas server farm

The Israeli military also said that it discovered weapons inside the UNRWA building itself, including rifles, grenades, and explosives. The intelligence that led to the discoveries came from Shin Bet interrogations of terrorists captured in the IDF’s Gaza offensive.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini published another tweet after this news broke, somewhat meandering and quite defensive, in which he said,

- UNRWA did not know what is under its headquarters in Gaza.

- UNRWA is made aware of reports through the media regarding a tunnel under the UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza.

- UNRWA staff left its headquarters in Gaza City on 12 October following the Israeli evacuation orders and as bombardment intensified in the area.

- We have not used that compound since we left it nor are we aware of any activity that may have taken place there.

- We understand, through media reporting, that the Israeli Army has deployed troops within the UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza City.

- We are therefore unable to confirm or otherwise comment on these reports.

- In times of “no active conflict” UNRWA inspects inside its premises every quarter, the last inspection for the UNRWA Gaza premises was completed in September 2023.

- UNRWA is a Human development and humanitarian organisation that does not have the military and security expertise nor the capacity to undertake military inspections of what is or might be under its premises.

- In the past, whenever suspicious cavity was found close to or under UNRWA premises, protest letters were promptly filed to parties to the conflict, including both the de facto authorities in Gaza (Hamas) and the Israeli authorities. The matter was consistently reported in annual reports presented to the General Assembly and made public.

- These recent media reports merit an independent inquiry that is currently not possible to undertake given Gaza is an active war zone.

- The Israeli Authorities have not informed UNRWA officially about the alleged tunnel.

“The Israeli army is occupying our biggest UNRWA headquarters, that’s what’s outrageous." UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma is widely reported to have said in response to these allegations, though Murder Pop was unable to source the origin of the quote.

Just two days ago, on February 8, Juliette Touma told Al Jazeera that more food supplies are needed to avert famine in Gaza, and that “those supplies are with UNRWA but our operations are likely to come to an end in the next few weeks if funding remains suspended.”