World
Israeli lawmakers seek to ban UNRWA over support for Hamas, declare it terrorist entity
JERUSALEM – Pressure has been mounting in recent weeks on UNRWA, the United Nations agency tasked with aiding Palestinian refugees, over its failure to condemn armed terror groups in the Gaza Strip that have openly used its internationally funded facilities, including health clinics, schools and even its main headquarters, to conduct a brutal war against Israel.
This week, Israeli lawmakers approved the first reading of a bill that would cut ties with the controversial U.N. agency and declare it a terrorist entity. Speaking in the Knesset last week, Yulia Malinovsky, the bill’s sponsor, called UNRWA “a fifth column within the State of Israel” and said it was high time that the agency was outlawed in the country.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, Congress’ House Foreign Affairs Committee also passed initial legislation that would build on an already existing funding freeze of the multimillion-dollar organization and direct the State Department to recover previously donated monies.
“The U.S. has sufficient evidence at this point to impose terrorism sanctions on UNRWA,” Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Washington, D.C., think tank, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.
ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER: ‘DOZENS’ OF UNRWA STAFF TOOK PART IN HAMAS’ OCT 7 MASSACRE
Photos released by the Israel Defense Forces show three individuals they claim are Hamas combatants inside the UNRWA compound in Rafah. (IDF)
Goldberg, a former Trump National Security Council staff member, said the controversial organization “must be disqualified from any future role in Gaza,” pointing out that “UNRWA’s existence – to incite violence and hate toward Jews and Israel – is inherently antithetical to the goal of de-radicalizing Palestinian society and moving Palestinians to self-sufficiency.”
“If you keep UNRWA around for what comes next in Gaza, you are condemning both Palestinians and Israelis to a future of violence and instability,” he said.
The pushback against UNRWA, which according to its website carries out critical life-saving work for some 5.9 million Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, comes after Israel provided evidence that UNRWA employees actively participated in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attacks in southern Israel. More than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were murdered in the surprise attack, and a further 240, including a 9-month-old infant, were taken hostage back to Gaza.
UNRWA HQ in Gaza. Hamas terrorists attack kibbutz in Israel and woman kidapped by terrorists on Oct 7. (Getty, Israel Defense Forces via AP | Ahmed Zakot/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images | Hamas-Telegram)
In February, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Fox News Digital that “dozens” of UNRWA employees took part in the shocking attack and, following the release of more than 100 hostages, mainly women and children, during a cease-fire deal last November, it has been revealed that some were held captive by teachers and medical staff employed by the agency.
Israel has long accused UNRWA, short for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, of perpetuating the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It points out that Palestinian refugees are the only group afforded their own separate aid agency, while refugees from almost every other global conflict – past and present – are cared for under the broader umbrella of the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Refugees. It further notes that UNRWA, established in 1949 to provide services for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced when Israel was created, continues to recognize the descendants of those refugees regardless of where they were born or their current status – rather than attempting to settle them as other refugee agencies do.
DOSSIER REVEALS INFORMATION USED TO EXPLAIN UN AGENCY’S DEEP TIES TO HAMAS IN GAZA
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini (Getty Images)
According to UNRWA’s website, its pledged budget for 2023 was $1.46 billion, with the U.S. Germany, EU and France as its biggest donors, but after Israel presented evidence that employees participated in the Oct. 7 attacks, the U.S., along with 17 other countries decided to pause funding.
In March, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, Congress moved to extend the funding freeze through March 2025, even as most of the other countries decided to resume their support. Last week, under the newly installed Labor government, the U.K. said it would soon “release £21 million [$21.2 m] to support [UNRWA’s] lifesaving work in Gaza.”
IDF soldiers are seen operating in Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip. (IDF Spokesman’s Office)
The resumption of funds comes even as the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) continues to investigate Israel’s claims against UNRWA employees, according to an April announcement; and even as the Israeli military reports almost daily of its battles with armed terror groups in and around UNRWA-owned complexes, including buildings where Gaza civilians are sheltering.
Additionally, while UNRWA’s Commissioner General Philipe Lazzarini has been quick to condemn the fighting in his organization’s facilities – as well as the deaths of civilians, which the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says stands at some 38,000 – he has failed to call out Hamas, and other terror factions, for purposely drawing the fighting to its centers.
Displaced Palestinians arrive in central Gaza after fleeing from the southern city of Rafah on May 9. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Juliette Touma, director of communications for UNRWA, told Fox News Digital that the organization had “condemned all parties to the conflict over the misuse of UNRWA facilities, including Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.”
“We have made such comments repeatedly in our public statements, speeches, remarks and media interviews, including at the level of the Commissioner General,” she said.
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“We have also reminded all parties to the conflict that U.N. facilities must never be used for military or fighting purposes,” said Touma, adding that UNRWA had “called for investigations and independent inquiries of all violations of international humanitarian law.”
However, the condemnations appear not to have been forceful enough.
The legislation that passed its first reading in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, on Monday, drew the support of lawmakers from across the political spectrum. If passed into law, UNRWA would be prevented from operating inside Israeli territory and its personnel stripped of diplomatic privileges afforded to other U.N. staff.
U.N. vehicle enters the UNRWA offices in Jerusalem. April 2, 2024. (Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS)
UNRWA is also facing heat in Congress, with some members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee steadfast on maintaining the prohibition against funding – and now even seeking to rescind U.S. monies previously transferred to the agency.
On July 12, the committee voted on a bipartisan bill introduced by Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., directing the secretary of state to recover any federal funds already distributed to UNRWA. Passing in the committee, 24-22, Mast posted a lengthy video on X accusing those who voted against it of “willfully ignoring anything that doesn’t fit into their narrative that Palestinians are victims in this war – that is what they want to put forward – instead of [recognizing that] they started this war, they started a genocide, and now this war is what’s taking place.”
He criticized Democrats who claim that “UNRWA was doing God’s work,” noting that individuals educated in schools run by the agency were “indoctrinated… with hate for the Jews.”
“For way too long, UNRWA has masqueraded as a relief organization, while in reality serving as an incubator for Palestinian terrorists,” he said, adding, “Intelligence reports indicate that as many as ten percent of UNRWA workers have direct links to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihadists. It’s ludicrous that our hard-earned American tax dollars were going to fund this crap. The State Department needs to do everything it can to recoup this money.”
Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voices, told Fox News Digital that denying American funds for UNRWA made sense for Americans “because UNRWA is a body that fuels the hatred of Jews and the violence that results from that gross intolerance.”
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“This isn’t conjecture. It’s undeniable fact,” she said, pointing out that “UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7 atrocities, sizable numbers of UNRWA employees are members of Hamas and other Palestinian terror organizations and UNRWA facilities have been used as Hamas command and control centers and as weapons storage depots.”
“It makes sense for Americans to deny funds to UNRWA because it’s the right thing to do,” she said. “Terrorism, rape, and antisemitism – not on our dime!”
Meta is laying off about 8,000 workers, or about 10% of its workforce, the company said Thursday as it continues to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and highly paid AI-expert hires.
The company said it was making the cuts for the sake of efficiency and to allow new investments in parts of its business, as first reported by Bloomberg, which also said the company will leave about 6,000 jobs unfilled.
Also Thursday, Microsoft said it was offering voluntary buyouts to thousands of its U.S. employees.
The software giant plans to make the offers in early May to about 8,750 people, or 7% of its U.S. workforce, according to two people familiar with the plan who were not authorized to speak about it publicly.
While an alternative to the sudden layoffs removing tech workers from peers like Meta and Oracle, the savings are likely tied to a similar industry upheaval that is requiring huge spending on the costs of artificial intelligence. Meta has already warned investors that its 2026 expenses will grow significantly — to the range of $162 billion to $169 billion — driven by infrastructure costs and employee compensation, particularly for the artificial intelligence experts it’s been hiring at eye-popping pay levels.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives welcomed Meta’s cuts in a note to investors Thursday.
He said he sees it as part of a strategy of using AI tools to “automate tasks that once required large teams, allowing the company to streamline operations and reduce costs while maintaining productivity driving an increased need for a leaner operating structure.”
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, has spent billions of dollars operating an ever-expanding global network of data centers powering cloud computing services, AI systems and its own suite of productivity tools, including the AI assistant Copilot.
CNBC reported earlier Thursday on a memo from Microsoft’s chief people officer, Amy Coleman, announcing the voluntary retirement plan.
“Our hope is that this program gives those eligible the choice to take that next step on their own terms, with generous company support,” Coleman wrote, according to CNBC.
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Tensions escalated in the Strait of Hormuz April 22 after Iran’s IRGC seized two vessels in what analysts describe as “tit-for-tat” retaliation against the U.S. And one ship is linked to a billionaire shipping family tied to Presidents Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron.
Video aired on Iranian state TV purportedly shows IRGC soldiers seizing the container ships in the Strait, Reuters said Thursday.
One vessel, the MSC Francesca, is owned by MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, which was founded by Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte and is now controlled by his two children, Fox News Digital has learned.
“Some 20 Iranians armed to the teeth stormed the ship. Sailors are under Iranian control, their movements on the ship are limited but the Iranians are treating them well,” a relative of one of the MSC Francesca seafarers told Reuters.
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Soldiers take part in the seizure of the container ships MSC Francesca and Epaminondas in the Strait of Hormuz, according to footage broadcast on Iranian state TV and released April 22, 2026. (IRIB/Handout/Reuters)
“The ship is anchored 9 nautical miles from the Iranian coast. Negotiations between MSC and Iran are ongoing, our sailors are fine,” Montenegro’s minister of maritime affairs, Filip Radulovic, told state broadcaster RTCG.
Maritime intelligence firm Windward AI pointed to IRGC “tit-for-tat” tactics given the recent MSC vessel seizure.
This followed a U.S. naval blockade imposed on April 13, with Tehran warning of retaliation after U.S. forces also seized an Iranian vessel.
“The IRGC attacked three ships. It also captured and took in two of them — the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas — while the Euphoria managed to get away,” Windward AI co-founder Ami Daniel told Fox News Digital.
IRAN FIRES LIVE MISSILES INTO STRAIT OF HORMUZ AS TRUMP ENVOYS ARRIVE FOR NUCLEAR TALKS
Soldiers take part in the operation seizing the container ships MSC Francesca and Epaminondas in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state TV April 22, 2026. (IRIB/Handout/Reuters)
“This is a ‘tit-for-tat’ exercise by the IRGC, which, along with the Houthis, has long claimed MSC is connected to Israel.
“Aponte, owner and chairman, has a Jewish wife, and MSC calls in Israel; however, so do all major liners.”
Diego Aponte, Gianluigi’s son, had been making “inroads with Trump’s circle,” Bloomberg reported April 13.
He also helped arrange a November 2025 White House meeting with Swiss business leaders that led to a preliminary deal to reduce the 39% tariffs imposed on Switzerland over the summer.
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The MSC executive chairman has been photographed with French President Emmanuel Macron. (Reuters/Stephane Mahe)
Over the last year, MSC’s relationship with the White House also positioned father Gianluigi Aponte as a key player in a $19 billion deal with Li Ka-shing, as MSC and BlackRock moved to acquire two Panama Canal ports under pressure from Trump to place them in “friendly” hands, according to the outlet.
With a net worth of at least $37 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, it is Gianluigi Aponte and his wife, Rafaela Aponte-Diamant, who appear to mingle with world leaders.
The MSC executive chairman and Rafaela have been photographed with French President Emmanuel Macron.
GULF SHIPPING OPERATIONS GRIND TO HALT NEAR IRAN; US QUIETLY PREPARES FOR POSSIBLE STRIKE: ‘HEIGHTENED RISK’
The Panama-flagged MSC Francesca vessel docked in Long Beach, Calif., April 16, 2025. (Efrain Morales/Reuters)
Rafaela is also reportedly related to Alexis Kohler (his mother is said to be her cousin), who served as Macron’s secretary-general from May 2017 to April 14, 2025, and was described as “Macron’s second brain.”
The Aponte family’s vessel, carrying about 40 crew members, was taken toward Iran’s port of Bandar Abbas by the Iranian navy, sources told Reuters Thursday.
Four crew members, including the captain, are from Montenegro, officials said, while Croatia’s foreign ministry confirmed two Croatian nationals are also aboard.
MSC declined to comment, Reuters confirmed.
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The IRGC Navy claimed both vessels captured “were operating without the necessary permits.”
According to Lloyd’s List, the 2008-built MSC Francesca “normally operates in service between the U.S. West Coast, Asia and the Middle East Gulf.”
Published On 23 Apr 2026
Three professors at Atlanta’s Emory University in the United States have filed a lawsuit over their arrests during a 2024 campus protest over Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Their lawsuit on Thursday argued that the university broke its own free-speech policies when it called in police and state troopers to aggressively disband the protest, making 28 arrests.
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“The judicial system would find that Emory failed to protect its students, to protect its staff, to protect the educational mission of the university,” said philosophy professor Noelle McAfee, one of the plaintiffs.
“So this isn’t just about people’s individual rights. It’s our educational mission to train people in free and critical inquiry, to be able to learn how to engage with others, to be fearless.”
Laura Diamond, a spokesperson for Emory, responded that the university believes “this lawsuit is without merit”.
“Emory acts appropriately and responsibly to keep our community safe from threats of harm,” Diamond said in a statement. “We regret this issue is being litigated, but we have confidence in the legal process.”
The suit is just one example of how the nationwide wave of protests from 2023 and 2024 continues to reverberate on elite campuses.
There have been multiple instances where students and faculty have filed lawsuits against universities, arguing they were discriminated against because of the protests.
But the Emory suit is unusual. McAfee and her fellow plaintiffs — English and Indigenous studies professor Emilio Del Valle-Escalante and economics professor Caroline Fohlin — all remain tenured faculty members. None were convicted of any charges.
The civil lawsuit in DeKalb County State Court demands that the private university repay money the three spent defending themselves against misdemeanour charges that were later dismissed, along with punitive damages.
McAfee said she’s suing her employer “to try to get them to be accountable and to change”.
All three say they were observers on April 25, 2024, when some students and others set up tents on the university’s main quad to protest the war. They say Emory broke its own policies by calling in Atlanta police and Georgia state troopers without seeking alternatives.
McAfee was charged with disorderly conduct after she said she yelled “Stop!” at an officer roughly arresting a protester. Del Valle-Escalante said he was trying to help an older woman when he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
Fohlin said that, when she protested against officers pinning a protester to the ground, she herself was thrown face-first to the ground and arrested, suffering a concussion and a spine injury. Fohlin was charged with misdemeanour battery of an officer.
Emory claimed that those arrested that day were outsiders who trespassed on school property. But 20 of the 28 people arrested were affiliated with the university.
The professors said that, after their arrests, they were targeted by threats and harassment, part of a pushback by conservatives who said universities were failing to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism and allowing lawlessness.
Nationwide, however, advocates say there is a “Palestine exception” in which universities are willing to curb pro-Palestine speech and protest. Palestine Legal, a legal aid group supporting such speech, said Tuesday that it received 300 percent more legal requests in 2025 than its annual average before 2023, mostly from college students and faculty.
McAfee served as president of the Emory University Senate after her arrest. The body makes policy recommendations and has helped draft the university’s open expression policy.
She said she asked then-President Gregory Fenves in fall 2024 why Emory police weren’t dropping the charges against her and others. McAfee said Fenves told her that he wanted “to see justice”.
The open expression policy was revised after 2024 to clearly prohibit tents, camping, the occupation of university buildings and demonstrations between midnight and 7am.
Whatever the policy, McAfee said students are afraid to protest at Emory, saying the university has turned its back on what Atlanta civil rights icon John Lewis called “good trouble”.
“Students know right now that any trouble is not going to be good trouble at Emory, that they could get arrested,” she said. “So students are afraid.”
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