Republicans Equate Aid Workers With Terrorists In Hearing On U.N. Funding
HuffPost
The largest aid organization in war-torn Gaza is the "identical twin" of Hamas, one lawmaker said.
Republican lawmakers repeatedly equated aid workers with Hamas terrorists during a heated hearing Tuesday as they called for the U.S. government to permanently stop funding the United Nations agency responsible for helping Palestinian refugees in Gaza.
Last week, the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries paused aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the largest aid organization in war-torn Gaza. The sanctions came in response to an intelligence report from Israel alleging that 12 of UNRWA’s roughly 13,000 employees were involved Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that some 10% of the organization’s staffers have ties to Islamist militant groups, citing intelligence documents.
“The United Nations relief workers agency is a terrorist-supporting entity, ladies and gentlemen,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said at Tuesday’s House Foreign Affairs committee hearing.
Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.) called UNRWA, the primary source of humanitarian aid to millions of people in Gaza, the “identical twin” of Hamas.
Without evidence, Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) claimed that Hamas was far more deeply embedded in UNRWA than Israeli intelligence suggested.
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