US President Donald Trump's administration is exploring options to hold the UN Palestinian refugee agency "accountable", a State Department official told The National on Thursday.
The US official described it as “a corrupt organisation with a proven track record of aiding and abetting terrorists”, echoing remarks from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has called UNRWA “a subsidiary of Hamas".
“Everything is on the table. No final decisions have yet been made,” the official said.
US officials have reportedly held internal discussions about imposing terrorism-related sanctions on UNRWA, which was created in 1949 by the UN General Assembly to help Palestinian refugees after the founding of Israel.
Among the options floated, Reuters reported, was designating UNRWA as a foreign terrorist organisation, a move that would effectively cut the agency off from the global financial system. Supporters of the push say the administration should move swiftly.
US Senate foreign relations committee chairman Jim Risch said imposing sanctions on UNRWA was “a no-brainer”, because the agency is compromised beyond repair.
UNRWA has frequently come under scrutiny from the US and its ally Israel. The agency has repeatedly rejected allegations of ties to Hamas, saying the claims are politically motivated.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long campaigned for UNRWA’s dissolution, accusing it of fostering anti-Israeli incitement and providing cover for Hamas operations.
UN officials and members of the Security Council have warned that dismantling the agency would deepen Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, describing UNRWA as the backbone of aid delivery in the enclave. The two-year war between Israel and Hamas has left much of Gaza in ruins and pushed its population into famine.
Israel has also alleged that some UNRWA employees took part in Hamas’s 2023 attack, which prompted several donor governments to suspend funding temporarily this year. Since January 30, Israel has barred UNRWA from operating on Israeli-controlled territory, including East Jerusalem, and cut off formal contact.
Independent reviews later identified “neutrality-related issues” at the agency but found Israel had not supplied conclusive evidence for its central claim.
The UN said in August that nine UNRWA staff would be dismissed after preliminary inquiries suggested they may have been involved in the attacks on October 7, 2023. The move has further complicated efforts to restore aid flows into Gaza as conditions continue to deteriorate.
