Four more employees of the United Nations' Palestinian refugee aid agency, three teachers and a social worker, participated in holding Israeli hostages or carrying out the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack, a federal watchdog has found. The USAID Office of Inspector General laid out the allegations in an April 30 investigative summary that widens an already damning picture of Hamas infiltration inside UNRWA, and raises the prospect of federal criminal charges against agency personnel.

The four newly identified staffers bring the total number of UNRWA employees linked to Hamas or the Oct. 7 massacre to at least 21. All 21 have been proposed for suspension or debarment from receiving federal funds for the next decade. And the inspector general's office is not finished: investigators are still examining more than 100 UNRWA officials.

That last number deserves to sit with you for a moment. More than 100 employees of a UN agency, one that received up to $1.5 billion in American taxpayer money during the Biden administration, are under active federal investigation for possible ties to a designated terrorist organization. The agency's defenders have spent years insisting that any overlap between UNRWA's payroll and Hamas's ranks was marginal, accidental, or overstated. The inspector general's caseload suggests otherwise.

Teachers, a social worker, and a school principal

The April 30 summary described the four additional current or former staff as "alleged to have participated in the holding of civilian hostages kidnapped from Israel and/or the terrorist activities in Israel on October 7, 2023." Three held teaching positions. One was a social worker. Their names have not been released.

They are not the first UNRWA educators to surface in the probe. The IG's earlier work uncovered Hafez Mousa Mohammed Mousa, an UNRWA school principal who, investigators found, served as an operative in Hamas's East Jabaliya Battalion and helped coordinate communications for the Oct. 7 attack. Mousa was debarred from receiving federal funds for ten years.

The pattern is worth noting. These are not janitors or warehouse clerks on the periphery of a sprawling bureaucracy. They are teachers and administrators, the people UNRWA places in classrooms with children, funded in part by American dollars. When critics warned for years that UNRWA's educational infrastructure was entangled with Hamas, the international community largely waved them off. The inspector general's findings make that dismissal harder to sustain.

FBI, DOJ, and the question of criminal charges

Two sources familiar with the matter told the New York Post that the Department of Justice and the FBI have been looking into allegations that UNRWA employees assisted Hamas. One source said plainly that "the FBI is definitely involved in it on the counterterrorism side."

The same source indicated that USAID OIG evidence could eventually be forwarded to prosecutors should they decide to bring a case. The legal terrain is complicated, but the federal government is clearly mapping it. The DOJ announced charges in September 2024 against senior Hamas leaders, including providing material support for a U.S.-designated terror organization that killed Americans and conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. Those charges carry a maximum penalty of life in prison or the death penalty. Separate counts for financing terrorism or evading sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act carry up to 20 years each.

The Oct. 7 attack killed 1,200 people in Israel, including 46 American citizens. More than 250 hostages were taken back to the Gaza Strip. The involvement of American victims gives federal prosecutors jurisdiction, and, one source noted, the investigation touches on "the murder of Americans."

The question of how far the law can reach into UNRWA's ranks, however, runs into a jurisdictional wall. Last October, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled in Manhattan federal court that UNRWA has immunity from civil legal claims because it is part of the United Nations. A civil suit had alleged UNRWA provided more than $1 billion to Gaza. The Trump administration's DOJ moved in April 2025 to strip UNRWA of that immunity and has since appealed Torres's decision to the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

One source familiar with the matter framed the stakes clearly: "The question of immunity for UNRWA would also be relevant for criminal indictments and economic sanctions." In other words, if UNRWA can hide behind the UN's legal shield, holding its employees accountable for participating in a terrorist attack becomes far more difficult, a result that should trouble anyone who believes the rule of law applies equally, even to international organizations. The broader pattern of judges blocking executive enforcement actions on security grounds makes the appellate outcome here all the more consequential.

A senior State Department official responds

A senior State Department official offered a blunt assessment of the IG's findings, telling the Post:

"The recent investigation by the USAID IG confirms that the UN is deficient in vetting its own staff for ties to terrorist organizations. As the UN itself doesn't consider Hamas a terrorist organization, both UN agencies and local NGOs [non-governmental organizations] may still hire Hamas-affiliated staff that place programs at high risk for diversion. This will not be tolerated."

That statement identifies the structural problem at the heart of the scandal. The United Nations does not classify Hamas as a terrorist organization. UNRWA operates inside that framework. So the agency's hiring and vetting processes are built on a foundation that does not treat Hamas membership as disqualifying. American taxpayers, meanwhile, have been funding the result.

President Trump signed an executive order in February 2025 halting all U.S. funding to UNRWA. That order came after the Biden administration had sent up to $1.5 billion to the agency. The contrast in approach is stark, and the IG's continuing findings suggest the funding cutoff was overdue.

Congress moves to tighten the financial vise

The executive branch is not acting alone. Congressional appropriators were looking, as of last month, at cutting total UN funding by up to $1.8 billion. The proposed cuts include a provision that would eliminate American tax dollars from flowing to any group that does not cooperate with the USAID OIG investigation. That provision would give the inspector general's probe real financial teeth, and put UNRWA and its parent organization on notice that stonewalling has a price.

The UN, for its part, is asking for more money, not less. The organization is seeking billions this year as part of a $71.4 billion package for recovery and reconstruction in Gaza. That funding request landed roughly one month after the IG uncovered Mousa, the UNRWA school principal who doubled as a Hamas operative. The timing speaks for itself.

UNRWA still received more than $839 million in funding through the United Nations in calendar year 2025, even after the U.S. funding halt. The agency's financial pipeline extends well beyond Washington. But the American share, and the American leverage that comes with it, remains significant. Lawmakers who tie future funding to cooperation with federal investigators are making a reasonable demand: if you want our money, open your books.

The broader debate over accountability for institutions that fail basic vetting standards echoes across other policy areas. Cases involving individuals with violent records who slipped through screening processes have drawn similar scrutiny in the immigration and public-safety context.

DOJ's Leo Terrell weighs in

Leo Terrell, a senior counsel at the Department of Justice, posted a two-word response on X regarding the four most recently flagged UNRWA employees: "Jail them!" The post, dated May 3, captured a sentiment that extends well beyond social media. When federal employees of a UN agency are credibly accused of kidnapping civilians and aiding a terrorist massacre, the expectation of criminal consequences is not extreme. It is the baseline.

Whether prosecutors can deliver on that expectation depends on the immunity question now before the Second Circuit, and on the willingness of the DOJ to push the legal envelope. The Trump administration has signaled it intends to do exactly that. The appeal of Judge Torres's ruling is one front. The ongoing FBI counterterrorism investigation is another.

The legal and diplomatic maneuvering will take time. But the factual record is growing harder to ignore. At least 21 UNRWA employees have been linked to Hamas or the Oct. 7 attack. More than 100 remain under investigation. The agency's own vetting failed to catch teachers and school principals who moonlighted as terrorist operatives. And the international body that oversees UNRWA does not even classify Hamas as a terrorist group.

That institutional architecture, where the UN's own definitions create a permission structure for hiring terrorists, is not a bug in the system. It is the system. And American taxpayers funded it for years. The pattern of courts intervening to block security-oriented enforcement actions only compounds the frustration for those who believe accountability should not wait for diplomatic consensus.

A senior U.S. diplomat referenced a "list" in connection with the investigation, a reminder that the names and roles of suspected UNRWA-Hamas operatives are being tracked, catalogued, and, if the legal path clears, potentially prosecuted. The investigation is not winding down. It is widening.

Across Washington, the appetite for holding institutions accountable for security failures has grown. Whether the subject is high-profile criminal incidents in the capital or a UN agency that employed terrorists, the public expects the same thing: answers, consequences, and a government that treats the safety of its citizens as non-negotiable.

When the people on your payroll helped kidnap civilians and coordinate a massacre, "we didn't know" is not an answer. It is an indictment, of the institution, its oversight, and every dollar that flowed to it unchecked.