UN aid chiefs in Gaza faced mounting pressure on Tuesday, with revelations that 3,000 of their Palestinian teachers shared messages of support for Hamas militants as they raped and murdered civilians in Israel on October 7.
Hillel Neuer, director of UN Watch, which monitors the UN, spoke to Congress about his investigation on a Telegram channel for UN teachers in Gaza that was filled with posts from members praising the bloodbath.
The hearing came in the wake of revelations that 12 employees of the U.N. Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, participated in kidnappings and murders on Oct. 7, prompting the United States and others to suspend funding for the agency.
Neuer told the House subcommittee on Tuesday that the discredited U.N. agency should be permanently “dissolved.”
“It’s time to stop pretending that UNRWA can be fixed,” Neuer said.
Hillel Neuer urged a House Foreign Affairs committee to “dissolve” UNRWA
Neuer presented messages from a Telegram group for 3,000 Palestinian teachers with the UN aid agency there, UNRWA
“The very existence of a Telegram group of 3,000 teachers in which its members celebrate Hamas atrocities is nothing more than a symptom of UNRWA’s core problem: its true purpose is to undo the creation of Israel in 1948.”
His investigation investigated in a Telegram chat group used by UNRWA teachers to share files, staff names and curricular materials.
But it was also filled with posts celebrating Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, praising the terrorists who raped and murdered civilians as “heroes.”
The channel’s users glorified the “education” the terrorists received, shared photos of dead or captured Israelis, and called for the execution of hostages.
Some comments were posted minutes after Hamas militants began their wave of rapes, murders and kidnappings on October 7.
Safaa Mohammad Al Najjar, administrator of the group, praised the act of “resistance” and the “holy warriors” who stormed Israeli territory.
He decorated his texts with a red heart emoji.
Another member of the group commented on a photograph of a dead Hamas fighter.
“Our martyrs are in heaven,” he wrote, adding that the “dead of Israel are in hell.”
Users also regularly share videos, photos and messages that incite “jihadist terrorism” and openly celebrate the massacre and rape of civilians by Hamas terrorists, Neuer told the panel.
In a prominent post in the report, UNRWA professor Waseem Ula shared a video glorifying Hamas attacks and posted a photo of an explosive-laden suicide bomb vest.
The caption read: “Wait, children of Judaism.”
He also allegedly glorified one of the October 7 attackers as a “friend” and “brother.”
Allah should “admit him to paradise without judging him,” he added.
Another UNRWA professor, Abdallah Mehjez, used the group to urge Gaza civilians not to heed Israeli warnings to move away from danger and instead serve as human shields.
The committee also learned that Palestinian students are taught to hate Israelis in UN-backed schools.
UNRWA “is not what it claims to be, a humanitarian agency helping Palestinians,” Neuer said.
“It’s become part of the problem.”
The hearing was repeatedly interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters.
It followed the publication of an Israeli intelligence dossier that said some 190 UNRWA employees, including teachers, had doubled as Hamas or Islamic Jihad militants, and featured names and photographs of 11 of them.
The UN agency for Palestinians, known as UNRWA, provides aid and education to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, such as this school in Hebron.
A UNRWA center for Palestinian refugees in Sidon, Lebanon
Members of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees are alleged to have committed heinous acts against Israelis during the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, when the United States and several other nations cut funding.
The six-page dossier sparked a cascade of countries suspending funding to UNRWA.
UNRWA members participated in murders, kidnappings and armed terrorists during raids on settlements, the explosive document alleges.
The defendants, who have not been identified, include teachers, other types of school workers, an employee, a social worker and a warehouse manager.
A worker allegedly participated in one of the kibbutz massacres that killed 97 of the 1,200 Israeli victims that day.
Another is accused of kidnapping an Israeli woman in Gaza, while another is said to have handed over rocket-propelled grenades during the bloody ambush.
The damning allegations say UNRWA employees did everything from a school counselor who allegedly helped kidnap a woman, others who handed out ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades, and another who allegedly participated in a kibbutz massacre that killed 97 people.
An aerial view of buildings destroyed as a result of the Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on January 26.
The U.N. aid agency said it had fired workers who were still alive while it launched an investigation into the explosive allegations.
The US State Department said it was “extremely concerned” by the claims and called for “full accountability” for those involved in the October 7 attacks.
Donors including Germany, Britain, Italy, Australia, Japan and Finland followed the lead of the United States, which said on Friday it had “temporarily paused additional funding” for the agency.
“In the reconstruction of Gaza, UNRWA must be replaced by agencies dedicated to genuine peace and development,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement, urging more donors to suspend funding.
The organization is promising a thorough investigation into the allegations, even before the explosive nature of the allegations was revealed.
The Palestinians have accused Israel of falsifying information to tarnish UNRWA.
Israel says about 1,200 people were killed and 253 kidnapped by Hamas fighters in the Oct. 7 attack, which sparked an Israeli invasion and a war that engulfed the United States, its Iranian proxies and others.