A former UNRWA school teacher allegedly received and held civilian hostages on October 7, 2023. Not a rogue militant who happened to live near a school. A salaried employee of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees — the agency Democrats swore was purely humanitarian.
He wasn't alone. Not even close.
A USAID Inspector General report has now confirmed that more than 100 UNRWA employees have been referred to the State Department for their participation in Hamas's October 7 atrocities — the deadliest massacre of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust. The report, first covered by Just The News reporter Misty Severi, details a sprawling network of UN-funded staffers who doubled as operatives in one of the most meticulously planned terrorist attacks in modern history.
Of those 100-plus referrals, three individuals have been flagged specifically for debarment — the formal process of banning them from receiving any future U.S. government contracts or funding. So far, exactly one debarment has been completed: an UNRWA school principal who coordinated communications with suspected Hamas members during the attacks themselves.
A school principal. Coordinating with terrorists. On the clock.
The USAID findings build on earlier intelligence from March that identified 14 UNRWA employees with direct links to Hamas. That number was already damning enough to justify cutting funding. Now it's been multiplied by a factor of seven. Additional referrals to both the State Department and the Department of Justice are expected.
When President Trump moved to defund UNRWA, the institutional response was predictable. Capitol Hill Democrats called it cruel. European diplomats called it reckless. The UN itself warned of a humanitarian catastrophe. The argument was always the same: UNRWA feeds children, UNRWA runs schools, UNRWA is a lifeline.
Which is technically accurate — it does run schools. Schools where the principals help plan kidnappings.
The "humanitarian agency" defense was never serious, and the people making it knew that. UNRWA has operated in Gaza for decades with hiring practices that amount to asking Hamas for a list of approved candidates. The organization's employee unions have been dominated by Hamas-affiliated members for years. None of this was secret. It was simply inconvenient to acknowledge if your political position required maintaining the funding pipeline.
Three referrals for debarment. One completed. Over a hundred participants in a mass atrocity still working their way through a bureaucratic process that moves at the speed of international diplomacy — which is to say, barely.
The number isn't 14 anymore. It's north of 100. And those are just the ones USAID could confirm with enough evidence to make formal referrals. The actual figure is almost certainly higher, because terrorist organizations don't typically file accurate HR reports with the Inspector General.