Complaint: UNRWA supported and facilitated the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7 by transferring $1 billion in aid to Gaza

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) “aided and abetted” Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack in Israel by sending $1 billion in aid to Gaza – cash the group looted to smuggle weapons and explosives into the country, a new US state lawsuit says.

UNRWA continued to transfer money from its bank account in Manhattan to the war zone to fund schools and hospitals and pay staff, despite knowing that Hamas could divert some of the money to finance terrorist attacks, the indictment says.

“Hamas did not commit these atrocities without complicity,” said a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Manhattan by about 100 Israeli plaintiffs, including survivors of the Oct. 7 attack.

The secret attack on Israel – which also killed innocent civilians at the Nova music festival – was “aided and abetted” by senior officials of UN agencies who had funded Hamas’s “terror infrastructure” for over a decade and knew that they were “supplying Hamas with the US dollars in cash it needed to pay smugglers for weapons, explosives and other terror materials,” the indictment says.

“Whether the defendants knew the precise plans for the attack or its scope is irrelevant to their liability; they knew that Hamas openly proclaimed its goal of attacking and murdering innocent civilians in violation of international law and United States treaties, and they knew that the material support it provided would strengthen Hamas’ ability to do so,” the lawsuit continues.

“The resulting atrocities were foreseeable, and the defendants are guilty of aiding and abetting genocide, crimes against humanity and torture by Hamas.”

The lawsuit demands unspecified damages and names a number of defendants, including Philippe Lazzarini, the aid agency’s general commissioner, and the agency’s former head, Pierre Krähenbühl.

The success of this procedure is unclear, as diplomats generally enjoy immunity from lawsuits in local courts.

“The United Nations, including UNRWA, enjoys immunity from jurisdiction, as do United Nations officials, including those serving with UNRWA,” agency spokeswoman Juliette Touma told the New York Times.

According to court documents, the UN group has not yet received a subpoena to respond to the lawsuit.

Similar lawsuits have been filed before. For example, Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson (Texas) and victims of Israeli terror attacks accused the Biden administration earlier this year of “knowingly and unlawfully” allocating more than $1.5 billion in aid to Gaza and the West Bank.

President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have “known for years” that US aid provides “material support” for Hamas’ “tunnels, rockets, weapons procurement, and command and control infrastructure” as well as other terrorist structures, the complaint states.

The U.S. government has transferred $122 million to UNRWA since October — before reports of its staff’s involvement in the October 7 Hamas attack prompted the State Department to temporarily halt funding, a State Department spokesman told the Washington Post in February.