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.
UN OFFICIAL CALLED ‘TERROR SYMPATHIZING ANTISEMITE’ BY ISRAELI AMBASSADOR AS CALLS GROW FOR HER DISMISSAL
“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!”
Global energy markets remain in a state of high alert after several Gulf states suspended oil and gas production following escalating tensions in the region.
Since Saturday’s attacks by the United States and Israel, Tehran has targeted various sites in Israel and across several Gulf countries.
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Initially, these Iranian attacks focused primarily on US military assets, but Gulf states have reported that Iran has since broadened its scope to target civilian infrastructure, including hotels, airports and energy facilities. Iranian officials have publicly denied targeting Gulf energy facilities, however.
The Middle East remains the world’s dominant source of hydrocarbon reserves and a major driver of crude oil and natural gas output.
How much oil and gas does the Middle East have?
Nearly half of the world’s oil reserves and exports come from the Middle East, which contains five of the seven largest oil reserves in the world.
Once refined, crude oil is used to make various products, including petrol, diesel, jet fuel and a wide range of household items such as cleaning products, plastics and even lotions.
After Venezuela, which has 303 billion barrels, Saudi Arabia holds the world’s second-largest proven crude oil reserves, estimated at 267 billion barrels.
The Middle East’s largest oil reserves:
- Saudi Arabia: 267 billion barrels
- Iran: 209 billion barrels
- Iraq: 145 billion barrels
- UAE: 113 billion barrels
- Kuwait: 102 billion barrels
Saudi Arabia is also the world’s top oil exporter with an estimated $187bn of crude in 2024, according to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC).
The Middle East’s top oil exporters:
- Saudi Arabia: $187bn
- UAE: $114bn
- Iraq: $98bn
- Iran: $47bn – largely sold at a discount due to US sanctions
- Kuwait: 29bn
Other Middle Eastern countries with sizeable oil exports include: Oman ($28.9bn), Kuwait ($28.8bn) and Qatar ($21bn).
In addition to crude oil, the Middle East is a global powerhouse for natural gas, accounting for nearly 18 percent of global production and approximately 40 percent of the world’s proven reserves.
Natural gas is primarily used for electricity generation, industrial heating, and in chemicals and fertilisers.
The heart of Middle Eastern gas is a single, massive underwater reservoir called the South Pars/North Dome field. It is the largest gasfield in the world, and it is shared directly between Qatar and Iran.
Gas is transported either through pipelines or by tankers. When using pipelines, the gas is pressurised and moved through steel networks. When pipelines are not feasible, such as across oceans, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is used.
To create LNG, the gas is cooled to approximately -162C (-260F), shrinking its volume and allowing it to be safely loaded onto specialised tanker ships for global transport.
To transport oil and gas, tankers from various Gulf states must navigate the narrow waterway known as the Strait of Hormuz. Approximately one-fifth of global oil and gas passes through this strait, primarily heading to major markets in Asia, including China, Japan, South Korea and India, as well as to Europe.
Which energy facilities have been attacked?
Here are the facilities which have recorded damage as of Wednesday:
Saudi Arabia – Ras Tanura oil refinery
On Monday, one of the world’s largest oil refining complexes, the Ras Tanura oil refinery owned by Saudi Aramco, was forced to halt operations after debris from intercepted Iranian drones caused a small fire.
Saudi Aramco is one of the world’s largest companies, with a market capitalisation exceeding $1.7 trillion and revenue of $480bn. Headquartered in Dhahran, in eastern Saudi Arabia, Aramco controls 12 percent of global oil production, with a capacity of more than 12 million barrels per day (bpd).
On Wednesday, Saudi defence officials reported a second drone attempt on the facility but this was successfully intercepted with no damage or disruption to operations reported.
Qatar – Ras Laffan Industrial City LNG facilities
On Monday, Qatar’s Ministry of Defence reported that Iranian drones had targeted an energy facility in Ras Laffan belonging to QatarEnergy, the world’s largest LNG producer.
While no casualties were reported, QatarEnergy suspended the production of LNG and other products at the impacted sites.
QatarEnergy’s 81 million metric tonnes of LNG exports are mostly bound for Asian markets, including China, Japan, India, South Korea, Pakistan and other countries in the region. The halt in production hiked global gas prices to a three-year high this week.
Qatar – Mesaieed Industrial City
Qatar’s Defence Ministry said the country was attacked by a second drone launched from Iran on Monday, targeting a water tank belonging to a power plant in Mesaieed, without reporting any casualties.
On Tuesday, QatarEnergy also stopped production of some downstream products like urea, polymers, methanol, aluminium and others.
UAE – Fujairah and Mussafah oil terminals
On Monday, a fire broke out at Mussafah Fuel Terminal in southwest Abu Dhabi after it was struck by a drone.
On Tuesday, falling debris from a drone interception caused a fire at the Fujairah Oil Terminal along the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates. No injuries were reported.
Oman – ports of Duqm and Salalah
On Tuesday, multiple Iranian drones struck fuel tanks and a tanker at the port of Duqm, with at least one direct hit on a fuel storage tank, causing an explosion.
On the same day, a drone strike was recorded at the Port of Salalah, which handles fuel and industrial minerals.
Athe Nova – oil tanker
On Monday, the Athe Nova, a Honduran-flagged tanker positioned off the coast of Khor Fakkan, UAE, was struck by Iranian drones as it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz, setting it ablaze. Despite the fire, the vessel managed to exit the chokepoint into the Gulf of Oman, and no casualties were reported.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for the strike, identifying the Athe Nova as an “ally of the United States”.
On the same day as the attack, Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, warning that any ship attempting to pass would be “set ablaze”.
Since then, several other tankers have been hit.
Other regional energy disruptions
Although not directly targeted, the following energy sites suspended operations in response to Iranian retaliatory attacks:
Israeli offshore gasfields – Major gas production fields such as Leviathan and Tamar were shut down as a precaution following regional drone and missile launches linked to Iran.
Oil fields in semiautonomous Iraqi Kurdistan – Producers including DNO, Gulf Keystone and Dana Gas halted output as a safety measure amid the escalation.
Rumaila oilfield – Operations at Iraq’s largest oilfield – operated by BP – in southern Iraq were halted on Tuesday as a security precaution due to its proximity to the escalation zone.
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Senior Iranian clerics would have been left “exposed” after an Israeli airstrike hit a meeting place where they were supposed to be convening Tuesday — days after a strike leveled the Tehran compound of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a defense analyst has claimed.
The clerics, members of the Assembly of Experts, had reportedly planned to meet at the location in Qom to deliberate succession plans for Khamenei, who was killed in the strikes, according to The Times of Israel.
“This second strike would be another embarrassment to what has been left of the regime,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital.
“It indicates intelligence dominance and superiority because any movement is detected, meaning they would feel exposed,” Michael added.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an Israeli airstrike Saturday. (Getty Images)
“As of now, the leadership would feel insecure and hunted, with all of their plans collapsing one after another.”
“They would feel totally isolated and understand that the biggest risk might come from home — from a potential uprising next,” he added.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin confirmed that the Israeli Air Force struck the building where senior clerics had planned to assemble, The Times of Israel reported.
KHAMENEI’S DEATH OPENS UNCERTAIN CHAPTER FOR IRAN’S ENTRENCHED THEOCRACY
A general view of Tehran with smoke visible in the distance after explosions were reported in the city, Monday, in Iran. (Contributor/Getty Images)
It remains unclear how many of the 88 members were present at the time of the strike, according to an Israeli defense source cited by the outlet. The second strike on Iran’s leadership comes amid a broader military campaign.
As previously reported by Fox News Digital, U.S. forces have struck more than 1,700 targets across Iran in the first 72 hours of Operation Epic Fury, according to a U.S. Central Command fact sheet.
The campaign is aimed at dismantling Iran’s security apparatus and neutralizing what officials describe as imminent threats.
According to U.S. Central Command, targets have included command-and-control centers, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Joint Headquarters, the IRGC Aerospace Forces headquarters, integrated air defense systems and ballistic missile sites.
FIREBRAND ANTI-AMERICAN CLERIC ALIREZA ARAFI SEEN AS CONTENDER TO REPLACE IRAN’S KHAMENEI
The USS Thomas Hudner fires a Tomahawk land attack missile in support of Operation Epic Fury, Sunday, while at sea. (U.S. Navy/via Getty Images)
“We need strategic patience and determination, and in several weeks most of the job will be accomplished,” Michael added. “Even if the regime does not collapse, Iran will not be like we used to know.
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“I assume that the U.S. and Israel will establish a very robust monitoring mechanism that will enable them to react whenever the regime tries to reconstitute its military capacities again.”
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