U.N. Agencies Continue Obstructing U.S. Investigation Into Gaza Aid, Hamas Ties

U.N. humanitarian organizations continue to obstruct an ongoing federal probe into whether U.S. financial aid and relief operations in Gaza are tied to Hamas, according to U.S. officials and congressional documentation.

The investigation, spearheaded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Inspector General under the directive “Operation Stop the Carousel,” aims to identify extremists within international relief groups and prevent suspect staff from moving between agencies, The Washington Free Beacon reports. However, federal authorities report that key international bodies have repeatedly declined to share personnel files, contact lists, or details regarding their dealings with the terrorist group.

According to nonpublic oversight findings submitted to Congress, none of the six U.N. entities under review fulfilled the inspector general’s baseline request for employee identification records. Organizations such as the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration, and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs provided only “partial” answers. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme failed to submit a final response, and the U.N. Development Programme provided no reply.

Federal investigators have already verified that roughly 100 Hamas affiliates received salaries funded through the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The probe’s scope has since expanded to examine roughly 1,500 individuals associated with UNRWA who are suspected of links to terrorism, sparking growing demands on Capitol Hill to officially label the organization a foreign terrorist entity.

Internal U.N. documents indicate that international investigators set aside intercepted communication records and location data linking aid workers to the October 7 assault, choosing not to evaluate whether agency staff maintained active status in Hamas’s armed wing.

State Department officials condemned the lack of transparency, reiterating that Washington will not allow international recipients to shield their payrolls from accountability. U.S. diplomats are pushing the U.N. to permanently dismantle UNRWA, signaling that future recovery efforts in Gaza will instead run through alternative bodies, including the U.S.-backed Board of Peace and an Israel-based Civil-Military Coordination Center designed to prevent aid diversion.

The pushback has drawn swift reaction from lawmakers. In April, U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz backed calls from Sen. Ted Cruz to permanently end UNRWA’s funding by statute.

“A recent report in the Washington Free Beacon revealed that numerous U.N. agencies have been stonewalling the OIG’s efforts to track their ties to terrorism and how they spent American aid,” Cruz noted. “They are even refusing to disclose whether they used American money to directly pay the salaries of Hamas terrorists. The OIG sent letters to six separate UN agencies, asking them to name all of the employees ‘who worked on U.S. government funding awards and to provide their contact information. The agencies were unresponsive.’ How concerned are you about these dynamics, and what should we be doing about them?”

“I share your concern, Senator. It’s one of the reasons that UNRWA in particular should be defunded,” Waltz replied. “I think we should put it in law that it is permanently defunded.”

Congressional leaders, including Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. James Comer (R-KY), have pledged further legislative inquiries.