Israeli bank freezes UNRWA account over suspected terrorist funding

Bank Leumi’s risk management system received alerts of unusual activity in the UNRWA account. 

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Israel’s Bank Leumi has frozen UNRWA’s account after it failed to provide credible explanations for suspicious transfers, giving rise to concerns the organization may be funding terrorist activities.

This follows a finding that 12 employees of the United Nations Refugee Workers Agency directly participated in the October 7th massacre in Israel that left 1,200 dead, 250 as hostages.

In response, over a dozen countries suspended funding of the UN organization.

Bank Leumi’s risk management system received alerts of unusual activity in the UNRWA account.

The bank asked the UN organization to provide more details of transactions, since there was no concrete information about the precise identities of the senders or recipients or an indication of how the money was being used.

Bank Leumi said they didn’t receive satisfactory explanations from UNRWA and have frozen the organization’s account.

There is a grave concern over these suspicious transactions, especially given the possibility UNRWA may be funding terrorist organizations.

UNRWA’s annual budget is $1.2 billion of which 75% has been suspended after many countries pulled their funding over revelations about UNRWA’s participation in the Hamas massacre.

For years, Israel has said that UNRWA has been involved with educating children in Gaza schools to hate Israel and has been colluding with the Hamas terrorist group.

These allegations are standing up to scrutiny as more details come to light about the extent of UNRWA’s involvement with Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

UNRWA has admitted that it was aware Hamas was storing weapons underneath Gaza schools and that Hamas had built tunnels underneath UNRWA buildings and civilian facilities.

The former head of UNRWA’s union in Gaza was fired in 2017 after Israel found out he had been elected to Hamas’ top political leadership.

The IDF found letters from Hamas’s military wing to Gaza’s education ministry requesting teachers be given the day off for training sessions leading up to October 7th.

A clearer picture is also emerging about the 12 UNRWA employees who participated in the attacks.

Seven were primary or secondary school teachers, including two math teachers, two Arabic language teachers, and one primary school teacher.

Bank Leumifunding terrorismUNRWA funding