{"id":15044,"date":"2024-02-03T00:46:36","date_gmt":"2024-02-03T00:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/03\/biden-admin-sent-millions-to-hamas-linked-unrwa-after-oct-7-attacks-before-halting-funding\/"},"modified":"2024-02-03T00:46:36","modified_gmt":"2024-02-03T00:46:36","slug":"biden-admin-sent-millions-to-hamas-linked-unrwa-after-oct-7-attacks-before-halting-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/03\/biden-admin-sent-millions-to-hamas-linked-unrwa-after-oct-7-attacks-before-halting-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden admin sent millions to Hamas-linked UNRWA after Oct 7 attacks, before halting funding"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Biden administration sent millions in government assistance to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for FY24 amid allegations of terrorist ties against federal employees prior to the administration\u2019s pause of new funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The administration announced a pause on new funding would be enacted last week over allegations that some of its members were \u2018involved\u2019 in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. The U.S. government had already earmarked $51 million for FY24 prior to the pause.<\/p>\n

The funds were a result of an emergency request for Gaza and the West Bank following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, and the war that resulted.<\/p>\n

\u2018The pause decision was well after the initial tranche to UNRWA\u2019s oPt Flash Appeal of $51M,\u2019 a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital. \u2018That funding was obligated back in mid-November in the early part of the crisis, about 100 days before the Jan. 26 pause.\u2019<\/p>\n

Some politicians criticized the spending following the State Department\u2019s pause in funding. Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blasted President Biden on the floor on Tuesday for the aid, while calling for a stronger retaliatory response against Iranian proxies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018As I\u2019ve said before, there is no room for the tired cast of corruption and terrorism in the future of the Palestinian people. As such, Senate Republicans will not accept any legislation that allows taxpayer dollars to fund UNRWA,\u2019 McConnell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the time the pause was implemented, about $300,000 had been approved for UNRWA but not yet obligated, the State Department spokesperson said. The approved funds were frozen as a result of the pause.<\/p>\n

\u2018No further funds will be approved for UNRWA during the pause,\u2019 the department said. \u2018The majority of UNRWA\u2019s funding comes from donors other than the United States.\u2019<\/p>\n

According to a USAID fact sheet, the funds were assigned to go toward food assistance, protection, shelter and settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Biden administration has sent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to UNRWA in recent years \u2014 arguing the agency provides much needed humanitarian aid to Palestinian territories \u2014 after reversing former President Trump\u2019s decision to cut funding to the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Critics have long argued that UNRWA is directly tied to Hamas terrorists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, New Jersey GOP Rep. Chris Smith introduced a bill, known as the \u2018Stop Support United Nations Relief and Works Agency Act of 2024,\u2019 that would cut off U.S. funding.<\/p>\n

Twelve UNRWA employees were allegedly \u2018involved\u2019 in the Oct. 7 attack, and additional U.S. funding could resume subject to an investigation from the United Nations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UNRWA, citing information provided by Israeli authorities, fired the accused employees last week and announced an investigation \u2018to protect the agency\u2019s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance\u2019 and \u2018establish the truth without delay,\u2019 Reuters reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters Tuesday the federal government supports \u2018the work that UNRWA does\u2019 and called it \u2018critical\u2019 to the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018There is no other humanitarian player in Gaza who can provide food, medicine at the scale that UNRWA does,\u2019 Miller said. \u2018We want to see that work continued, which is why it is so important that the United Nations take this matter seriously, that they investigate it, that there is accountability for anyone who is found to engage in wrongdoing, and that they take whatever other measures are appropriate to ensure that this sort of thing cannot happen again.\u2019<\/p>\n

Fox News\u2019 Peter Aitken contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Biden administration sent millions in government assistance to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for FY24 amid allegations of terrorist ties against federal employees prior to the administration\u2019s pause of new funding.\u00a0 The administration announced a pause on new funding would be enacted last week over allegations that some of its members <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}