Following the letter sent to Chief of Staff Hertzi Halevi by senior IDF officers, who read that Israel should stop blacklisting UNRA for the time being on the grounds that any organization that takes its place will be worse, the Chief of Staff stated that Hamas does indeed control key intersections of UNRA – and gave a strong hint that he would not accept the recommendation presented to him from within the IDF.
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Foreign Minister Israel Katz supported the Chief of Staff’s words, published a post on the X social network against the organization, and read: “UNRA is part of the problem. Part of the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas in Gaza. Part of the Palestinian lie is that there are ‘refugees’ who need to return to the State of Israel. We are working to remove UNRA from Gaza. They are the problem – not the solution.”
The IDF located weapons in a UNRA bag in the Gaza Strip. Photo: IDF spokesman
As I recall, the Prime Minister also referred to publications about UNRWA, saying: “In recent days, we revealed to the world that UNRWA cooperates with Hamas, and that some of its people even participated in the massacres and kidnappings of October 7th. This only reinforces what we have known for a long time – that UNRA is not part of the solution, UNRA is part of the problem. It is time to start the process of replacing UNRA with other organizations that are not tainted by supporting terrorism.’