FILE - A woman and her children walk past a wall with photographs of hostages who were kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas cross-border attack in Israel, Feb. 26, 2024, in Jerusalem. On Monday, June 24, Israelis who were taken hostage or lost loved ones during the attack filed suit against the United Nations agency that aids Palestinians, claiming it has helped finance the militants by paying agency staffers in U.S.
“UNRWA’s staff, facilities and ability to truck cash U.S. dollars into Gaza formed a potent pillar of Hamas’ plan to undertake the Oct. 7 attack,” the lawsuit says, asserting that the U.N. agency “systematically and deliberately aided and abetted Hamas and its goals.
UNRWA employees use local money-changers to convert their dollars to Israeli shekels, the complaint says. “Hamas’ ability to carry out the Oct. 7 attack would have been significantly and possibly fatally weakened without that UNRWA-provided cash,” the complaint says. Touma said the U.N., including UNRWA, and their officials are immune from lawsuits. She declined to comment further on the suit in question, saying the agency hadn’t officially been served with it.