The State Department announced Tuesday that the Biden administration sent about $121 million in taxpayer funds to UNRWA, the United Nations agency under investigation for alleged ties to Hamas.
The remaining $300,000 allocated for this year was expected to be delivered to humanitarian relief organizations in the coming weeks. But the United States froze those funds because some UNRWA member states were suspected of participating in Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
“That funding has been stopped,” Miller told reporters at a regular State Department news conference. He said it was “impossible” to say how much more the United States could provide to UNRWA this fiscal year if the funding freeze was lifted because the government operates under a continuing resolution. added.
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UNRWA personnel pack medical aid and prepare it for distribution to hospitals at a warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip, October 25, 2023. (Majidi Fatih/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“We don’t know how much funding will be available overall this year, but that will impact how much funding we can provide to UNRWA,” Miller said. “Historically, we have typically provided funding of between $300 million and $400 million annually.”
The Biden administration is sent billions It donated a portion of taxpayer dollars to UNRWA, reversing former President Donald Trump’s decision to cut funding to the organization. Biden officials claim the fund provides humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, while critics claim the organization is “effectively a branch of Hamas.”
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UNRWA Secretary-General Philippe Lazzarini will hold a press conference in Jerusalem on October 27, 2023. (Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)
UNRWA’s relationship with Hamas has come under close scrutiny in recent weeks. Provided by Israel The Biden administration has submitted new documents containing information about how about 13 agency employees aided or supported the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
The Biden administration announced last week: temporarily stopped ‘Additional’ funding to UNRWA in response to this document. Germany, Italy, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands and Switzerland have also joined the boycott in response to the accusations, and several staff members have already been fired.
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Miller said the next round of payments to UNRWA is expected to be made over the summer, and the amount will depend on how much money Congress approves for the agency in Biden’s request for an additional $106 billion package. Ta.
Despite the terrorism allegations, the White House defended UNRWA, saying the agency as a whole should not be judged for the alleged actions of the 13 people.
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“We are very supportive of UNRWA’s work and think it is important,” Miller said. “No other humanitarian aid provider in Gaza can provide food and medicine on the scale that UNRWA can.
“We want the work to continue, which is why the United Nations takes this matter seriously, investigates it, and holds those found involved in wrongdoing accountable and takes any other action. “It is very important that we take appropriate steps to ensure that something like this never happens again.”
Fox News Digital’s Peter Aitken and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
