(WASHINGTON) — Some U.S. citizens who are victims and family members of victims of Hamas and Hezbollah attacks have filed a lawsuit against the largest U.N. agency that provides humanitarian assistance for Palestinians, accusing the aid organization of promoting terrorism.
Filed in a Washington, D.C., district court last week, the lawsuit targets the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and its U.S.-based non-profit, UNRWA USA, which is based in Washington, D.C.
The 200 plaintiffs accuse UNRWA of violating antiterrorism laws by allegedly providing funds and other methods of support to Hamas and Hezbollah, which are classified by the State Department as foreign terrorist organizations. They also accuse the agency of employing staff who they say were directly involved in terror attacks.
In a press release, UNRWA slammed the lawsuit as “meritless, absurd, dangerous, and morally reprehensible.”
“Both UNRWA and UNRWA USA’s missions are legal, moral, and humanitarian,” the organization said in the statement. It called the allegations “misinformation to dismantle a life-saving institution precisely because of its central role in keeping Palestinian refugees and the hope of Palestinian freedom and self-determination alive.”
One of the plaintiffs, the Mathias-Troen family, is suing on behalf of Shachar Deborah Troen Mathias and his wife, Shlomi David Mathias, who were “heinously murdered” by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the lawsuit. In addition to their deaths, the couple’s son was physically injured, prompting 12 family members to seek reparations for the “severe mental anguish and extreme emotional pain and suffering” they endured.
While many of the allegations center around Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel, some plaintiffs are also seeking compensation for attacks that occurred years prior.
“This is a case seeking justice and accountability against an entity that holds itself out as ‘humanitarian’ but which has utterly failed in its mission and purpose while unconscionably providing material support for terror,” Richard D. Heideman, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said in a statement to ABC News.
Samuel Silverman, counsel for all plaintiffs, told ABC News that the lawsuit is about putting an end to the “foster[ing of] a culture of terrorism.”
The plaintiffs seek unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, with Heideman telling ABC News that they demand payment for “any judgment for which [the defendants] are found liable.”
A similar lawsuit was filed in New York last year, where noncitizen victims and their families accused UNRWA of assisting Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack, citing alleged instances in which they say UNRWA employed Hamas members, contributed to the construction of Hamas military centers, and held Israeli hostages, among other allegations.
UNRWA USA called this a “baseless lawsuit,” filing a motion to dismiss the case.
“This legal attack is not just on UNRWA USA but on millions of Palestine refugees who rely on its funding for critical needs like food, water, and medical care,” they said in a statement.
The agency argued that it should be immune from litigation because it is a subsidiary organ of the U.N.
As a subsidiary of the U.N., the Biden administration supported UNRWA having immunity from civil liability, which protected the agency from this legal action. But the Trump administration’s Justice Department reversed this stance in April, issuing a letter to the judge overseeing the case that said the prior administration’s stance on the matter was “wrong.”
“Previously, the Government expressed the view that certain immunities shielded UNRWA from having to answer those allegations in American courts. The Government has since reevaluated that position, and now concludes UNRWA is not immune from this litigation,” the letter read.
Silverman called this reversal “a real step in the right direction” and emphasized the need to “support victims of terrorism,” which he believes to be “bipartisan.”
“This lawsuit is sort of going to be novel, as we’ve seen by the two positions that the Justice Department has taken,” he said of the 2025 lawsuit, expressing his confidence in the case.
Outside of the courts, the Trump administration has determined that UNRWA as an organization is “compromised” and should be “dismantled.”
“We can confirm the Administration has determined UNRWA is irredeemably compromised and now seeks its full dismantlement,” a State Department spokesperson told ABC News on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order demanding “renewed scrutiny” for UNRWA, particularly regarding its role in Oct. 7, citing reports that the agency was “infiltrated” by members of foreign terrorist organizations.
In a January interview with ABC News, Director of UNRWA’s DC office, Bill Deere, promised that “every allegation that is brought to our attention with information gets investigated.”
UNRWA previously acknowledged possible wrongdoing in the Oct. 7 attack, terminating nine U.N. employees last summer for potential involvement in the attacks after an investigation led by the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services.
The Biden administration paused UNRWA funding in January 2024 in light of these allegations and the subsequent investigation. The funding remains frozen today, despite multiple congressional efforts to restore it.
“Without the US government’s full financial support, UNRWA’s ability to continue its life-saving work for Palestine refugees at the scale needed, including in Gaza will be in jeopardy,” UNRWA USA said in a statement in March.
According to an UNRWA report released last Friday, food parcels ran out “several weeks ago,” and “no UNRWA supplies entered the Gaza Strip” since March.
The largest U.N. agency operating in Gaza, UNRWA was established in 1949 as a “subsidiary organ” of the UN General Assembly, with operations commencing a year later.
“UNRWA provides humanitarian assistance and contributes to protection of refugees through essential service delivery, primarily in the areas of basic education, primary health care and mental health care, relief and social services, microcredit, and emergency assistance, including in situations of armed conflict, to millions of registered Palestine refugees located within its five fields of operations (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza),” their mandate says.
Deere also told ABC News that UNRWA “represents most of the U.N. staff, the facilities, the expertise and supporting infrastructure for the response in Gaza.”
In 2021, UNRWA said the U.S. was their “largest donor with a total contribution of over US$338 million across all UNRWA funding portals.” They have also referred to the U.S. as one of their “most reliable supporters.”
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