UNRWA schools ‘hijacked by Hamas,’ watchdog report warns

A leading independent watchdog organization published a report this work, on how the Hamas terrorist movement took control over the education system in Gaza and Lebanon from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

The watchdog group — UN Watch — titled its 220-page report “Schools in the Grip of Terror: How UNRWA Allowed Hamas Chiefs to Control Its Education System.”

According to the report, “These case studies show in detail how Hamas has hijacked UNRWA’s education through its domination of the local UNRWA staff unions, particularly the teachers’ sectors of the unions, enabling Hamas to control UNRWA schools — the physical facilities, teachers, and curriculum — including by preventing the agency from implementing changes to de-radicalize the curriculum, blocking efforts by UNRWA to discipline staff for inciting antisemitism and jihadi terrorism, and placing Hamas operatives in senior educator positions in schools.”

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A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “The Administration has determined UNRWA is irredeemably compromised and now seeks its full dismantlement along with the return of remaining unspent funds. Other U.N. agencies and other more effective international partners are more than capable of stepping in to provide essential lines of support.

“As stated in President Trump’s February 4 Executive Order regarding ending funding or reviewing support for certain U.N. and international organizations, ‘UNRWA has reportedly been infiltrated by members of groups long designated by the Secretary of State (Secretary) as foreign terrorist organizations, and UNRWA employees were involved in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.”’

The spokesperson concluded, “President Trump and Secretary Rubio have long stated that Hamas will never govern Gaza again. That includes institutions they have infiltrated to sustain their power and influence.”

Telling examples of Hamas control over UNRWA’s education system are, according to UN Watch, the expulsion of Matthias Schmale, a senior member of UNRWA’s international staff who headed the agency’s Gaza operation in 2021 because he issued an apparent pro-Israel remark in a media interview.

UN Watch alleged “it took less than 10 days” for UNRWA’s Palestinian leaders on the ground, Amir Al-Mishal, then head of the UNRWA Gaza Staff Union, who coordinated with his predecessor Suhail Al-Hindi, to oust Schmale.

Suhail Al-Hindi publicly appeared with Hamas terrorist leaders for many years while working for UNRWA, UN Watch wrote. UNRWA refused to fire Al-Hindi. The U.S. and Europe have classified Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization.

UN Watch accused UNRWA of failing to dismiss “Fateh Sharif, who had served for years simultaneously as the head of the UNRWA Lebanon Teachers’ Union and as a senior leader of Hamas in Lebanon.”

Hillel Neuer, executive director, UN Watch, said “For years, governments have been writing billion-dollar checks to UNRWA believing they were investing in peace and tolerance. Our investigation reveals the shocking truth: UNRWA’s classrooms have been hijacked by Hamas and turned into incubators of hate. Donor states must confront the reality that they are financing terror by proxy.”

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The scandal-plagued UNRWA has bounced from one corruption and terrorism scandal to the next over the years, including aiding Hamas terrorists in the mass murder of Israeli Jews and Americans.

Fox News Digital reported in 2024 that former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel has evidence that dozens of individuals employed by UNRWA participated in the massacre of more than 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023, in southern Israel.

In August, Fox News Digital obtained a U.S. State Department public assessment to Congress, stating, “The administration has determined UNRWA is irredeemably compromised and now seeks its full dismantlement.”

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Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, told Fox News Digital that, “This report is part of a disinformation campaign that this organization, the so-called UN watchdog, has been launching against UNRWA for years now. Their reporting is full of unsubstantiated claims and clearly aims at destroying the agency which, at its heart, has provi[ded] education and health care in place where no one else actually wants to work with a group of people that is one of the most vulnerable in the region.” 

Touma dismissed the report, claiming, “By the way to say most cases referred to in the report as new are not new. 90%, if not more, are already known to us.he vast majority have been found as unsubstantiated.”

The US government stopped funding UNRWA because of its support for Hamas terrorists.