Blockbuster lawsuit claims UNRWA led a billion-dollar money laundering scheme to aid Hamas

A group of lawyers filed a complaint against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

The complaint states that Hamas did not carry out the atrocities of October 7th without assistance. Current and former members, as well as UNRWA itself, spent over a decade prior to October 7 helping Hamas build up the terror infrastructure and personnel necessary to carry out the attack.

That included knowingly providing Hamas with U.S. dollars and cash needed to pay for smugglers, weapons, missile systems, and other terror-related materials. But the situation goes even deeper and is more troubling.

MM Law, co-counsel on this case, found that more than one billion dollars had been handed over to Hamas. Gabriel Marrone, one of the attorneys involved, explained the mechanism by which these funds were transferred to a terror organization.

“The numbers we got were from U.N. reports and audits. We studied ten years of audits. They are buried in hundreds of pages of documents, but it is all there. The system, which is described and actually happened—we verified that—is as follows:

Donors contributed money to UNRWA in New York. The staff in New York analyzed the budgets across the five different offices of UNRWA in the Middle East. The funds for Gaza were transferred to JPMorgan’s branch in Ramallah. From there, the money was moved across the street to the Bank of Palestine.

The Bank of Palestine then issued withdrawals of $20 million in cash every month since 2018. We have documented this. The cash in Ramallah was loaded onto a Brink’s truck, which then drove from Ramallah into Gaza and delivered it to UNRWA there. They paid in U.S. dollars. However, dollars are not commonly used in Gaza—the primary currency is the shekel, as it is in the West Bank.

In the other four divisions, UNRWA used local currency so workers could buy food. But in Gaza, they paid in cash dollars. Since dollars are not widely accepted, recipients had to exchange them at money changers for shekels—money changers who charge a 10-20% fee. These money changers, in turn, were owned by Hamas.

This system effectively forced all employees in Gaza and all people receiving humanitarian aid to ‘donate’ a portion—about 15%—back to Hamas. But that’s not even the worst part. Hamas has sources of income from Iran and other international entities, which they can use within the banking system. What they don’t have is cash.

Why do they need cash, specifically U.S. dollars? Because they use it to pay smugglers who import weapons and other illicit goods. This $20 million per month turns out to be two-thirds of the U.S. dollars entering Gaza since 2018—just from UNRWA.

If you look at U.N. risk statements and their audits, they acknowledge that paying in cash presents a risk due to what they call ‘leakage.’ They recognize that the cash leaks into illicit activities. In fact, Israel prohibits anyone other than UNRWA (and, since 2018, a small amount from Qatar) from bringing cash into Gaza, precisely because they know it will be used for weapons.”

Charles: “Right. Let me pick up on that. The Biden administration temporarily paused all U.S. funding for UNRWA in January after allegations that 12 employees were involved in the October 7th massacre. Whatever became of that pause? Was there an investigation?”

Attorney: “You know, I have no idea what the United States is investigating or not. Obviously, we’ve been focused on—”

Charles: “Sure, sure. But it feels like either someone knew something was wrong, or this is another case where they claim there were only a handful of bad actors, so they dealt with them and moved on.”

Attorney: “That’s not the full story, okay? Besides the money, UNRWA actually provided cash for weapons procurement. If you look at the massive amounts of weapons, explosives, and anti-tank missiles Hamas has, those were pretty much supplied by UNRWA over the years.

They also facilitated the construction of tunnels by providing extra materials. On top of that, UNRWA demanded that Israel respect all its facilities, including headquarters buildings, claiming they had a diplomatic posture.

Because of this, UNRWA provided Hamas with safe harbor. Since Israel entered Gaza, they have discovered that virtually all UNRWA facilities, especially their headquarters, were filled with weapons. Even within schools, rocket launching systems were installed in schoolyards.

This safe harbor, combined with the flow of U.S. dollars and the incitement in the education system, leads to legal implications. Under international law, aiding and abetting crimes—including genocide, crimes against humanity, torture, and weaponization of sexual assault—holds serious consequences.

The plaintiffs in this case include victims who have suffered from each of these crimes. The question now is: Did UNRWA and its upper management know what was going on? Did they intentionally facilitate this? Forget the 12 or even 100 employees—senior Hamas leaders were always employed by UNRWA.

And yes, UNRWA knew exactly what was happening. The U.N. itself conducted audits and investigations repeatedly because it kept coming up that weapons were being stored in UNRWA facilities. Every time, reports were produced stating that this was illegal, that it violated U.N. policy, and that UNRWA was assisting terrorists.

Each time, UNRWA’s management in New York claimed they would do something about it—and then did nothing. Time after time after time.”

Charles: “Wow.”

Attorney: “Now we know they knew exactly what was going on, and they kept the money flowing. They kept the budgets intact.”

Charles: “I encourage everyone to read the lawsuit—160 pages of detailed documentation. It is heartbreaking, but the world needs to know what is happening. I applaud you for bringing this case forward. Thank you very much, and I hope we can talk again.”