UNRWA ‘aided and abetted’ Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7 by sending $1B in aid to Gaza: suit
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency “aided and abetted” Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack in Israel by sending $1 billion in aid to Gaza — cash that the group swiped to smuggle weapons and explosives into the country, a new federal lawsuit claimed.
UNRWA has continued to send money from its bank account in Manhattan into the war-torn territory to fund schools, hospitals and pay staffers despite knowing that Hamas has been able to siphon part of the cash to fund terror attacks, the suit charged.
“Hamas did not carry out these atrocities without assistance,” reads a complaint filed Monday in Manhattan federal court by around 100 Israeli plaintiffs, including survivors of the Oct.7 attack.
The sneak attack on Israel — which included killing innocent civilians at the Nova music festival — was “aided and abetted” by senior UN agency officials who for over a decade financed Hamas’ “terror infrastructure” and knew that they were “providing Hamas with the U.S. dollars in cash that it needed to pay smugglers for weapons, explosives, and other terror material,” the suit charged.
“Whether defendants knew of the precise plans for the attack or its magnitude is irrelevant to their liability; they knew that Hamas openly proclaimed its goal to target and murder innocent civilians in violation of the law of nations and treaties of the United States, and knew that the material support they were providing would enhance Hamas’ capability to do so,” the suit added.
“The resulting atrocities were foreseeable, and the defendants are liable for aiding and abetting Hamas’ genocide, crimes against humanity, and torture.”
The suit demands unspecified monetary damages and names a slew of defendants including Philippe Lazzarini, the relief agency’s commissioner-general, and the agency’s former head Pierre Krähenbühl.
The case’s success is unclear, given that diplomatic officials typically have immunity from lawsuits filed in local courts.
“The United Nations, including UNRWA, enjoys immunity from legal process, as do United Nations officials, including those serving with UNRWA,” agency spokeswoman Juliette Touma told the New York Times.
Court records show that the UN group has yet to be issued a summons to respond to the lawsuit.
Similar suits have been filed, including one earlier this year by Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) and Israeli terror attack victims that accused the Biden administration of “knowingly and unlawfully” giving 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 the US aid is providing “material support” for Hamas’ “tunnels, rockets, weapon procurement, and command and control infrastructure,” among other terror structures, the complaint alleged.
The US government sent $122 million to UNRWA since October — before reports about its employees’ involvement in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack prompted the State Department to temporarily pause funding, a State Department spokesperson told The Post in February.
