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!”
The instrumentalisation of vetoes undermines the democratic principles of the European Union as it hijacks the interests of 26 in the name of one single holdout, High Representative Kaja Kallas told Euronews in an exclusive interview.
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Kallas was reflecting on the end of Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in uninterrupted power, during which the Hungarian prime minister frequently frustrated his fellow leaders with his near-constant, overlapping vetoes.
“We have to be clear that, actually, the EU treaties do not foresee the veto. The treaties are based on unanimity — that everybody agrees,” Kallas told Euronews in an interview recorded on the sidelines of an informal summit of EU leaders in Cyprus.
“We have seen recently that when 26 countries want something, and one does not, then we end up doing what that one country wants, not what the 26 want. So it is not really democracy.”
EU treaties provide a legal pathway to move from unanimity to qualified majority voting. However, in a significant Catch-22, such a shift itself requires unanimous consent.
“We definitely also have to look at our working methods to be more effective, because in this geopolitical world we need to be credible — and for that we need to be united and able to take decisions,” she added.
As the EU’s foreign policy chief — an area where unanimity is required — Kallas has dealt first-hand with many of Orbán’s vetoes. At times, she had to issue statements in her own name after joint communiqués proved impossible.
Following this difficult period, the High Representative said she was “very hopeful” about having “good cooperation” with the incoming government of Péter Magyar, who won Hungary’s elections on a pledge to restore ties between Budapest and Brussels, currently at an all-time low.
Magyar has said the veto remains a “valid option”, provided it is used constructively.
“We cannot run ahead of events. First, we need to have the new Hungarian government in place, which will probably happen in mid-May,” Kallas said.
“Then we will see whether we can revisit the decisions that have been blocked before.”
‘A geopolitical choice’
This week saw the lifting of two Hungarian vetoes: one on the €90 billion loan to Ukraine and another on the 20th package of sanctions against Russia.
Orbán, though, seems intent on leaving his veto on Ukraine’s accession process, in place for almost two years, as an inheritance for Magyar. As a result, Kyiv has yet to open a single cluster of negotiations.
The incoming prime minister has expressed opposition to fast-tracking talks with Kyiv, a view shared by other member states, who worry any shortcuts will undermine the credibility and integrity of the enlargement policy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, keeps pushing for a “clear date” for his country’s admission under an accelerated timetable. He has also rejected overtures for half-baked membership as an alternative to fully-fledged rights.
“Ukraine does not need symbolic membership in the EU. Ukraine is defending itself — and it is also defending Europe. And it is not doing so symbolically — people are really dying,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week before joining EU leaders in Cyprus.
“We are defending shared European values. I believe we deserve full membership.”
Kaja Kallas, who has been a strong supporter of Kyiv’s ambitions, said it was important to “work on both sides” — public opinion in member states and legal reforms in Ukraine — and to shift the narrative around candidate countries to highlight their potential contributions to the bloc.
“We need to talk about what we gain from these countries joining,” she said.
“A bigger Europe, a stronger Europe in terms of defence, and also a larger single market that benefits our companies — all of this makes us a more credible geopolitical power in the world,” she added. “It is always a geopolitical choice.”
Ukraine, Kallas noted, has by far the largest army in Europe, meaning that “Europe would be stronger if Ukraine were with us.”
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.
TRUMP’S SPECIAL ENVOY WITKOFF AND KUSHNER VISIT US AIRCRAFT CARRIER AMID IRAN TENSIONS, TALKS
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.”
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