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Since October, the Biden administration has sent about $121 million in taxpayer funds to UNRWA, the U.N. company beneath scrutiny for its alleged ties to Hamas, the State Department mentioned Tuesday.
A remaining $300,000 in appropriated funds for this fiscal yr was supposed to be delivered to the humanitarian aid group within the subsequent few weeks. But the U.S. froze these funds over allegations that some UNRWA members participated within the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist assault on Israel, in accordance to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
“That funding has been suspended,” Miller instructed reporters on the State Department every day press briefing. He added that it is “impossible” to say how way more the U.S. may present to UNRWA this fiscal yr if the funds are unfrozen as a result of the federal government is working beneath a unbroken decision.
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UNRWA staff pack medical support and put together it for distribution to hospitals at a warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, on Oct. 25, 2023. (Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto through Getty Images)
“We don’t know how much overall funding will be available for this fiscal year, and that would impact how much that we would be able to provide UNRWA,” Miller mentioned. “Historically, we have typically provided somewhere between $300 and $400 million a year in funding.”
The Biden administration has sent a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer {dollars} to UNRWA, reversing former President Donald Trump’s determination to minimize funding to the group. Biden officers say the funds present humanitarian support to the Palestinian individuals, whereas critics say the group is “effectively a branch of Hamas.”
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner-general, holds a press convention in Jerusalem on Oct. 27, 2023. (Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu through Getty Images)
UNRWA’s ties to Hamas have come into focus in latest weeks after Israel offered the Biden administration with a brand new file containing details about how some 13 company staffers allegedly assisted or supported the Hamas terror assaults on Oct. 7.
The Biden administration introduced final week it has quickly paused “additional” funding to UNRWA in response to the file. Germany, Italy, Australia, Finland, Netherlands and Switzerland have additionally joined the boycott following the accusations, which have already resulted within the termination of a number of staffers.
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Miller mentioned the subsequent anticipated cost to UNRWA would occur over the summer time and that the quantity would rely upon how a lot cash Congress approves for the company in Biden’s $106 billion supplemental package deal request.
Despite the terrorism allegations, the White House has defended UNRWA, insisting that your entire company shouldn’t be judged by the purported actions of 13 individuals.
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“We very much support the work that UNRWA does, we think it’s critical,” Miller mentioned. “There is no other humanitarian player in Gaza who can provide food, medicine at the scale that UNRWA does.
“We need to see that work continued, which is why it’s so vital that the United Nations take this matter critically, that they examine it, that there’s accountability for anybody who’s discovered to interact in wrongdoing, and that they take no matter different measures are acceptable to be sure that this form of factor can’t occur once more,” he mentioned.
Fox News Digital’s Peter Aitken and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
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