Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, USAID’s Office of Inspector General (USAID OIG) identified Gaza as a high-risk for potential diversion and misuse of U.S.-funded assistance. It remains USAID OIG’s investigative priority to ensure that U.S.-funded humanitarian assistance in Gaza does not fall into the hands of Hamas and other foreign terrorist organizations.
To advance this priority, we initiated a proactive investigation into allegations that staff at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) participated in the October 7 terrorist attacks and/or were affiliated with Hamas.
USAID OIG independently found evidence connecting three current or former UNRWA employees to the October 7 terror attacks and affiliating 14 other current or former UNRWA employees with Hamas. The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) gave USAID OIG an opportunity to review the report of its independent investigation into UNRWA staff involvement in the October 7 attacks. However, OIOS redacted the names of subjects, rendering the report unusable for our purposes. We were also unable to obtain from UNRWA the names of any terminated personnel.
USAID OIG referred its investigative findings to the U.S. Department of State (DoS) OIG for the DoS’ consideration of administrative enforcement remedies. We will continue to provide rigorous oversight of taxpayer-funded assistance to Gaza, with a focus holding accountable those involved in the diversion of aid to terrorist organizations and preventing members of Hamas from circulating from UNRWA to other aid organizations. For more on USAID OIG’s Gaza-related oversight work, including our July 2024 report reviewing existing U.S. measures to prevent the diversion of aid to terrorist organizations, please visit: https://oig.usaid.gov/our-work/gaza-oversight.