Overview
- Two sources say the Trump administration is holding advanced discussions on options ranging from targeted terrorism-related sanctions to formally designating UNRWA a foreign terrorist organization, with no final decision made.
- Career State Department officials and some agency lawyers have pushed back over legal and humanitarian risks, even as political appointees press the case and policy talks run through the Office of Counterterrorism and Policy Planning.
- UNRWA’s Washington director William Derry called a terrorist designation unprecedented and unjustified, citing multiple independent reviews of the agency’s neutrality, while the U.N. says nine staff suspected over Oct. 7 were dismissed and it has repeatedly sought evidence from Israel.
- An unnamed State Department official labeled UNRWA corrupt and said everything is on the table, and Washington—historically the agency’s largest donor—froze its funding in January 2024 after Israeli claims that about a dozen staff joined the Oct. 7 attack.
- Officials and humanitarian actors warn a broad U.S. action could severely isolate the agency financially and disrupt services for millions it supports in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, even as more than 370 UNRWA staff have been reported killed and Israel has curtailed its work in areas under its control.