About a hundred Israelis – including a former Hamas hostage, some survivors of October 7 and families of men, women and children murdered by terrorists – have filed a lawsuit against UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. The lawsuit, filed recently in federal court in Manhattan, seeks damages from the agency for allowing some of its funding to be diverted from Hamas and used for terrorist purposes against Israel. The defendants named in the suit are current UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini; his predecessor Pierre Krähenbühl, who now works for the International Red Cross; former Deputy Commissioners General Leni Stenseth, Sandra Mitchell and Margot Ellis; Greta Gunnarsdottir, director of the agency’s New York office, and Filippo Grandi, United Nations high commissioner for refugees. “UNRWA’s personnel, facilities and ability to transport dollars in cash to Gaza constituted a powerful pillar of Hamas’ plan to undertake the October 7 attack,” reads the complaint filed in New York, headquarters of the UN agency. The thesis is that UNRWA “systematically and deliberately aided and abetted Hamas and its objectives.”
According to the indictment, in Gaza the agency, unlike other places where it operates, pays its 13,000 local employees in US dollars which must be exchanged for shekels. The exchange into the Israeli currency used in the enclave is operated by Hamas-affiliated money changers who retain between 10 and 15% on each transaction. In this way, Palestinian terrorists “received the dollars in cash needed to pay smugglers of weapons, explosives and other terrorist material.”
If UNRWA paid its Gaza staff in shekels, the plaintiffs say, the money could be sent electronically, reducing the need to pay commissions to Hamas money changers and thus avoiding providing the group with financial income.
Another point raised in the legal action is the fact that UNRWA “knowingly provided material support to Hamas in Gaza”, allowing it to have a safe haven in its centers, including schools and other buildings used as weapons depots or of command, on the basis of the assumption that its premises “were inviolable” and therefore immune from attacks by Israel.
Among those who signed the complaint is Ditza Heiman, who was kidnapped on October 7 and released in November. Heiman said the person who held her captive was a teacher at an UNRWA school and that she was given food rations from the UN agency, not intended for sale. “Hamas ruling Gaza is not an excuse for UNRWA to hire and finance terrorists. It should have taken every precaution to prevent this,” Heiman told Ynet.
