Ken Belson and Katherine Rosman
NY Times, June 24, 2024
“We do not believe UNRWA has immunity for aiding and abetting” the attacks on Israel.”
For years, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency sent millions of dollars each month to Gaza to pay employees and support hospitals, schools and other infrastructure, according to a new lawsuit. The money was wired from New York, where the agency has an office, to the West Bank, where financial institutions loaded some of that cash onto trucks to be driven across Israel to Gaza.
The suit, filed Monday in federal court in Manhattan, said some of those dollars ended up funding the military operations of Hamas, the Islamist group that has controlled Gaza for nearly 20 years and has pledged to erase the Jewish state. The money trail is at the heart of the case against seven current and former top UNRWA officials who are accused of knowing that Hamas siphoned off more than $1 billion from the agency to pay for, among other things, tunnelling equipment and weapons that aided its attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
About 100 Israeli plaintiffs — including at least one who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, others who survived the attack, as well as the estates of some who died — are seeking unspecified financial damages. They claim that UNRWA is liable because it helped fund Hamas, which the United States and other countries deem a terrorist organization. … [To read the full article, click here]