
Daily Kickoff: UNRWA’s Hamas ties resurface after Gaza strike
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at recent polling of Jewish voters, talk to Amb. David Satterfield about humanitarian aid in Gaza and report on the charges being brought against some of the participants in the University of Michigan’s anti-Israel encampment. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Robert Caro and Yossi Sariel.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Standing at the gates of Gaza – and telling the world what happened; Birthright Israel turning its post-Oct. 7 volunteer initiative into a larger, permanent program; and What’s giving Shari Redstone hope about the Middle East. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Washington today, and will be meeting with President Joe Biden at 4:30 p.m. The major focus of the meeting will be on next steps in supporting Ukraine.
- Vice President Kamala Harris is making two campaign stops in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania today — in Johnstown and Wilkes-Barre.
- Israeli singer Ishay Ribo is performing at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
What You Should Know
The Israeli strike on a U.N. Relief and Works Agency school on Wednesday that killed 18 people, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defense agency, brought a new round of criticism and condemnation against the IDF for its operations against U.N. facilities — despite half of those killed, according to information provided by the IDF, being members of Hamas, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports. The IDF released the names and positions in Hamas of nine of the individuals it says were killed in the strike on the building, which was reportedly being used as a shelter.
At least three of the six UNRWA staffers killed in the strike were members of Hamas in addition to carrying out their duties with the U.N. agency. Israel says the school was being used as a Hamas command-and-control center.
The strike came hours before the publication of a New York Times Magazine piece focused on UNRWA’s role in Gaza and ties to Hamas, both prior to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks — in which at least 12 members of the terror group actively participated — and after. Israel has said that up to 10% of the agency’s staff of roughly 13,000 in Gaza have ties to terror groups in the enclave.
“Would I be totally surprised if at the end of the day there is proof that 2,000 UNRWA staff are members of Hamas?” Matthias Schmale, the head of UNRWA in Gaza until 2021, asked, citing the numbers put forward earlier this year by Israel and first reported in The Wall Street Journal.
“No, I wouldn’t be,” Schmale continued. “It would be a bit shocking if it is such a high number … but it makes sense given the circumstances of Gaza.”
Further evidence of UNRWA’s employment of Hamas members has been discovered as Israeli forces continue ground operations in Gaza. At an IDF intelligence base on the outskirts of Tel Aviv earlier this summer, JI viewed documents — including UNRWA employee ID cards and photographs — directly linking agency staffers to Gaza terror groups.
Communications between Israel and UNRWA broke down in the aftermath of the discovery of the close ties between the U.N. agency and Hamas. Since February, aid that enters the enclave comes through collaborative efforts between COGAT, the Israeli agency tasked with distributing humanitarian assistance in Gaza, and a number of aid organizations, including the World Food Programme, World Central Kitchen and UNICEF.
“There are ongoing discussions around vetting, but not directly with UNRWA,” an Israeli official with knowledge of the discussions told JI. “The State of Israel doesn’t talk to UNRWA right now.”
reality check
Former Biden Middle East envoy blames Israel for humanitarian crisis in Gaza

David Satterfield, the American official who spent months seeking to increase humanitarian assistance to Gaza, criticized Israel for the beleaguered territory’s humanitarian crisis, claiming Israel’s partial operation in Rafah in May “upended” any progress that Israel had made in increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza, in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch.
Rafah ripples: “A level equal to that applied to the kinetic campaign needs to be applied to humanitarian efforts — that was President Biden’s explicit message when he visited Israel after Oct. 7,” Satterfield said in a conversation on the sidelines of the MEAD Summit in Washington this week. “That has not in practice been the case, although it was getting significantly better by May 7. It was the Rafah campaign that has fundamentally upended all of this.” Satterfield blamed the disruption on Israel and in particular, on Israel not successfully evacuating Rafah — a charge that COGAT challenged in a statement to JI.