Last week, officials of World Vision, an internationally known humanitarian organization, were indicted in Israel for secretly aiding military activities of Hamas, designated by the U.S. as a “Foreign Terror Organization.”
(FOX)- This week, Israeli security officials swooped down on officials of a much larger humanitarian organization which openly operates Hamas military activities.
That organization is United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, the agency that hosts descendants of Arab refugees from the 1948 war in refugee facilities for perpetuity.
Knesset Member Avi Dichter, former head of ISA, the Israeli Security Agency, who now chairs the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, pointed an unusually harsh finger at UNRWA, warning from the rostrum of Israel’s Knesset Parliament that “almost 100 percent” of UNRWA workers in Gaza are active in the Hamas terrorist organization.”
UNRWA operates with a budget of more than $1 billion, provided by more than 40 western nations. The U.S. is the leading donor to UNRWA, at $400 million each year.
Working with an Israeli-Palestinian team of journalists over the past few years, I have documented and filmed how UNRWA allocates cash from donor nations to conduct military training for children in the UNRWA classroom along with weapons training camps which Hamas organizes for UNRWA children.
Al-Kutla al-Islamiya, a division of Hamas, runs military activities, which attract UNRWA’s younger students, paving the way for recruitment in al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.