UN Report Clearing UNRWA of Terror Ties a ‘Whitewash,’ Witnesses Tell Congress

Congress has cut off aid to UNRWA until March 2025. Experts told it UNRWA has for years failed to clean up its act or investigate staffers’ links to Hamas.

An Israeli soldier runs down a crater-like hole giving way to a tunnel entrance, leading to where the military discovered tunnels underneath the main headquarters of UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, in Gaza on Feb. 8, 2024. Ariel Schalit /AP Photo

Three expert witnesses testifying before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on May 17 said a recent U.N. investigation into its troubled agency assisting Palestinians in Gaza was a whitewash.

They told the Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, chaired by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), that the Colonna Report was released by a committee stacked with agency supporters handpicked by the agency’s director.