For years, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency has sent millions of dollars a month to Gaza to pay employees and support hospitals, schools and other infrastructure, according to a new lawsuit. The money is sent from New York, where the agency has offices, to the West Bank, where financial institutions load some of the cash into trucks that will be transported to Israel for Gaza.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Manhattan, says some of those dollars end up funding the military operations of Hamas, the Islamist group that has controlled Gaza for nearly 20 years and has vowed to wipe out the Jewish state. The money trail is at the heart of the case against seven current and former top UNRWA officials who are accused of knowing that Hamas siphoned more than $1 billion from the agency to pay for, among other things, tunneling equipment and weapons that aided the attacks. in Israel on October 7.
About 100 Israeli plaintiffs – including at least one hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, others who survived the attack, as well as the estates of some of those killed – are seeking unspecified financial compensation. They claim that UNRWA is responsible because it helps finance Hamas, which the United States and other countries consider a terrorist organization.
UNRWA has been sued several times since the attack, with some cases claiming the agency has abetted Hamas and others trying to cut UNRWA funding. The case filed on Monday goes further, detailing how the plaintiffs believe the agency’s money ends up in the hands of Hamas and how terrorists use its resources in attacks on Israel.
The suit alleges that in Gaza, unlike elsewhere the agency operates, UNRWA pays its 13,000 local employees in US dollars that must be converted into shekels, the Israeli currency used in Gaza, by money changers linked to Hamas that are cut off. for the organization.
Civil lawsuits face many obstacles, particularly the question of whether the treaty gives UN officials immunity. But if the case goes ahead, it could allow other victims of Hamas attacks to seek compensation from the U.N. Even if it fails, the lawsuit could force countries that donate money to UNRWA to reevaluate their support.
“Hamas did not commit these atrocities without assistance,” the complaint said. It was “aided and abetted” by senior officials who for more than a decade financed Hamas’ “terror infrastructure” and knew that they “provided Hamas with the necessary US dollars to pay smugglers of arms, explosives, and other terror material.”
Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for the agency, said on Monday that she was aware of the claim, but that “the legal process has not been carried out.” She added: “The United Nations, including UNRWA, enjoys immunity from legal process, as does the UN. UNRWA.
A senior Hamas official did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hamas does not have access to the global banking architecture that allows money transfers to easily cross borders. For years, Israel has allowed outside funds, including money from UNRWA, to be sent to Gaza to pay for basic needs. The Israeli government facilitated a years-long effort by the Qataris to send money for humanitarian operations. But there are widespread questions about whether Qatari money has been diverted by Hamas to pay for military operations.
UNRWA was created in 1949 and is funded mainly through contributions from UN member states. The United States has long been the largest contributor, giving $371 million in 2023, nearly 30 percent of the agency’s contribution, according to congressional reports.
The defendants named in the suit are Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner-general; Pierre Krähenbühl, former head of the agency, who is now at the International Red Cross; Leni Stenseth, Sandra Mitchell and Margot Ellis, who are former deputy commissioners general; Greta Gunnarsdottir, director of the agency’s office in New York; and Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Spokesperson Ms. Stenseth declined to comment on the lawsuit, and a spokesman for Mr. Grandi referred all questions to the UN secretary-general’s office. Efforts to reach the other defendants were not immediately successful.
In an opinion essay written for The New York Times last month, Mr. Lazzarini distinguished the actions of individuals from the work of the agency and said that UNRWA or other UN organizations involved in terrorism “would diminish our tools for peace and defense against inhumanity around the world.”
In the agreement between the United States and the United Nations, the four highest levels of UN officials have full diplomatic immunity, according to Larry Johnson, former deputy legal adviser to the Lower UN officials have “functional immunity,” which means they cannot. be sued for acts done as part of their employment.
“We do not believe that UNRWA has immunity for aiding and abetting” attacks on Israel, Gavi Mairone, a human rights lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers argued that UNRWA officials could be sued in US courts because the agency had a New York office, raised funds in New York and used New York banks. Lawyers also say Alien Tort Statutes allow non-Americans to sue in U.S. federal courts for injuries caused by violations of international law.
The suit hinges on a long and tortuous cash trail that stretches from Manhattan to the Middle East.
According to the complaint, the agency every month asked JPMorgan Chase to send millions of dollars to the New York branch of Arab Bank, which has its headquarters in Jordan and is one of the largest financial institutions in the region. Arab Bank then sent the money to a branch in Ramallah, in the West Bank.
There, money earmarked for UNRWA operations in Gaza is transferred to the Bank of Palestine in Ramallah and then withdrawn as US dollars in cash, loaded onto trucks and driven across Israel to Gaza.
JPMorgan Chase declined to comment. Arab Bank and Palestinian Bank did not respond to requests to speak about the case.
The suit argues that while UNRWA pays Gaza staff in shekels, the money can be sent electronically, reducing the need to pay fees to Hamas-linked money changers. “Only Hamas benefits from UNRWA’s current cash handling practices,” according to the complaint.
The complaint said the group used the money “to purchase weapons, ammunition, explosives, construction materials for tunnels and rocket supplies through smugglers.”
The plaintiffs’ lawyers said the sources used to establish the details of the money trail included a UN audit of UNRWA’s finances and a UN investigation into the agency, as well as press reports that included comments from UNRWA about the movement of money from New York to Gaza. and the allocation of these funds.
The complaint does not indicate what evidence the plaintiffs will provide to prove with certainty that UNRWA money in Gaza was used to finance the October 7 attack. Nor does the complaint provide specific details to support the claim that Hamas controls the currency exchange.
But a report by Key Aid Consulting for UNRWA in 2018 said that the exchange revealed “leaks,” which included “irregularities, fraud, corruption, double counting and any irregularity considered to be the diversion of money or vouchers from their legitimate use.”
Monday’s lawsuit alleges that officials knowing specifically about the Oct. 7 attack is irrelevant, because they know that “Hamas has openly declared its intent to target and kill innocent civilians” and that any support would help.
UNRWA has long been accused of having ties to Hamas. In January, Israel accused twelve agency employees of playing a role in the attack on October 7 or after that. The UN said it had fired several employees after being notified of the allegations. The allegations prompted eight countries, including the United States, to suspend some aid to UNRWA.
In April, an independent review commissioned by the United Nations said Israel had not provided evidence that thousands of UNRWA employees were members of terrorist organizations. That led some countries to start making donations again.
Adam Rasgon and Patrick Kingsley contribute reports.
