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President Biden faced mounting pressure Sunday to permanently end all U.S. funding for the embattled United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees after the discovery of what the Israeli military said was a Hamas data center beneath the group’s headquarters in Gaza City.
The bombshell revelations from the Israel Defense Forces over the weekend were the latest blow to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, which was already under fire after Israeli said at least 12 of the agency’s staffers took part in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel. The U.S. suspended its funding to UNRWA after those discoveries.
The agency and its backers say financial support, including from the U.S., is more critical than ever, with nearly 1.4 million Palestinian civilians packed in and around the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. Israeli troops are preparing to launch an operation that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin defended Sunday as necessary to ensure that the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is defeated once and for all.
Mr. Netanyahu pledged that Israel would do all it could to protect Palestinian civilians in Rafah. He said Hamas’ strategy of using schools, hospitals and other sites as shields makes the task infinitely more difficult.
“We’re not cavalier about this. This is part of our war effort to get civilians out of harm’s way. It’s part of Hamas’ effort to keep them in harm’s way,” Mr. Netanyahu told ABC’s “This Week” in an interview Sunday.
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Israel’s discovery of an alleged data center directly under UNRWA’s Gaza City location once again brought the difficulty of rooting out Hamas to the forefront.
“The forces found electrical infrastructure inside the tunnel connected to UNRWA’s main HQ, suggesting it was supplying the tunnel with electricity — generated by the fuel provided through humanitarian aid,” the IDF said Saturday in a social media post.
The tunnel “contained multiple blast doors and various intelligence assets seized by the forces,” the IDF said. “Intelligence and documents found confirmed the offices’ use by Hamas terrorists. Large quantities of weapons, including rifles, ammunition, grenades and explosives, were uncovered hidden in the building’s offices.”
UNRWA officials denied any knowledge of the tunnel, data center or other alleged Hamas infrastructure. Agency officials said they haven’t operated out of the Gaza facility for months.
“We have not used that compound since we left it [in October] nor are we aware of any activity that may have taken place there,” the agency’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a social media post. “We are therefore unable to confirm or otherwise comment on these reports.”
Such explanations will do little to quell the firestorm in Washington. Key Republicans said the latest IDF discoveries should provide all the proof Mr. Biden needs to permanently sever the American relationship with the agency.
“The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has been knowingly providing material support for Hamas terrorists who committed unspeakable atrocities against over a thousand Israelis and dozens of Americans. That support included salaries and facilities,” Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, said in a statement. “Foreigners who knowingly funded UNRWA should be subject to sanctions and Americans who knowingly fund-raised for them should be investigated for criminal material support.”
Other Republicans questioned the agency’s position that it knew nothing about activity beneath its Gaza headquarters.
“There is no way that UNRWA did not know about these Hamas tunnels, and they must be held accountable for their role in aiding Hamas in carrying out the barbaric Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York Republican, said in a statement. “The Biden Administration must permanently cut off all U.S. funding to UNRWA, revoke UNRWA’s tax exempt status, and immediately conduct rigorous oversight of all U.S. money being sent to the U.N.”
President Trump ended U.S. funding for UNRWA in 2018. Mr. Biden restored that funding in January 2021, and the U.S. subsequently gave the agency more than $1 billion.
The administration suspended funding for UNRWA last month.
Top administration officials have said UNRWA’s work in Gaza is vital but acknowledged the significant questions swirling around the agency.
“It’s imperative that — as the U.N. has said it’s doing — that there be a thorough investigation, that there be clear accountability, and that there be clear measures put in place to make sure that this can’t happen again, that personnel working for it were not in any way involved in terrorism or the events of Oct. 7,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a press conference in Israel last week.
“We know that the work that UNRWA performs, the functions that it performs, have to be preserved because so many lives are depending on it,” Mr. Blinken said.
Congressional Republicans have introduced legislation to permanently end all U.S. funding to UNRWA.
Separately, the Biden administration has made clear its concerns about the looming Israeli operation in Rafah. In a call with Mr. Netanyahu on Sunday, Mr. Biden stressed the need to protect Palestinian civilians.
“The president emphasized the need to capitalize on progress made in the negotiations to secure the release of all hostages as soon as possible. He also called for urgent and specific steps to increase the throughput and consistency of humanitarian assistance to innocent Palestinian civilians,” the White House said in a readout of the call. “And he reaffirmed his view that a military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than one million people sheltering there.”
The United Nations and governments around the world have sounded the alarm on what they fear is an inevitable humanitarian catastrophe in Rafah if the Israeli military moves into the city.
The Qatari Foreign Ministry condemned “in the strongest terms the Israeli threats to storm the city of Rafah.” Other Middle Eastern nations have raised similar objections.
Mr. Netanyahu cast the move into Rafah as a necessary step in fully defeating Hamas. If Israel stops now, he said, Hamas would almost surely launch another operation similar to the Oct. 7 attack, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals.
“Those who say that under no circumstances should we enter Rafah are basically saying lose the war, keep Hamas there. And Hamas has promised to do the Oct. 7 massacre over and over and over again,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Victory is within reach. It has to be understood. And victory will be the best thing that will happen not only for Israel but for the Palestinians themselves. I can’t see a future for the Palestinians or for peace in the Middle East if Hamas is victorious.”
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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