EXCLUSIVE: US Probe of Embattled UN Gaza Relief Agency Expands to 1,500 Staffers Suspected of Hamas Ties: UNRWA Could Soon Be Labeled a 'Foreign Terrorist Organization'
Momentum is growing for UNRWA to lose its diplomatic immunity, which would expose it to lawsuits from Oct 7 survivors and victims’ families
L: UNRWA Building (Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images), R: Hamas militants (Abid Katib/Getty Images)
Adam Kredo
May 28, 2026
The federal investigation into staff at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency—the U.N. Gaza relief organization that's been closely linked to Hamas—will soon encompass at least 1,500 UNRWA-linked individuals suspected of terror ties. This unprecedented dragnet—reported here for the first time by the Washington Free Beacon—exposes an aid group brimming with Hamas operatives, and is generating momentum in Congress and the Trump administration for harsher sanctions on the embattled aid group, according to congressional staffers briefed on the matter.
The punitive measures up for consideration include stripping UNRWA of its diplomatic immunity under U.S. law, which would open it up to legal action from terror victims, and fully designating the aid organization as a foreign terrorist organization, according to three Trump administration officials and other sources tracking the matter in Congress.
These discussions have accelerated since the Free Beacon first reported in April that UNRWA and other U.N. agencies are stonewalling a federal probe into their ties to Hamas. The U.S. Agency for International Development inspector general's office, a law enforcement agency separate from the largely defunct USAID, has spent months independently unearthing evidence that multiple UNRWA employees participated in Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack. The probe will soon expand to at least 1,500 suspected militants with UNRWA ties.
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/exclusive-us-probe-of-embattled-un-gaza-relief-agency-expands-to-1500-staffers-suspected-of-hamas-ties-unrwa-could-soon-be-labeled-a-foreign-terrorist-organization/
