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‘Hamas Branch in Jerusalem Must Be Closed!’ Israelis Protest Outside UNRWA Office, Accuse Agency of Terrorism
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) briefs reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York City, US, on Sept. 21, 2023. Photo: John Lamparski/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
Dozens of protesters on Wednesday gathered in front of the Jerusalem office of the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, accusing the UN body of supporting the Hams terror group and calling for the closure of the facility.
“The Hamas branch in Jerusalem must be closed now,” demonstrators chanted, along with similar slogans.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — the global organization’s agency dedicated solely to the refugees and descendants of Palestinians who fled during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence — has long come under fire for promoting terrorism and antisemitism. Recently, agency staff have been accused of participating in and supporting Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
Earlier this month, for example, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an Israeli watchdog group, published research confirming two elementary school teachers hired by UNRWA participated in the Hamas atrocities.
The findings came after Impact-se released a separate report in November revealing that at least 14 teachers at UNRWA-run schools had praised the Oct. 7 pogrom.
An investigation by UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO that monitors the UN, independently found that a group of 3,000 teachers working in Gaza for UNRWA glorified and celebrated the massacre in an internal Telegram group. According to the findings, UN Watch found “abhorrent antisemitism and support for jihadi terrorism by UNRWA staff on social media… Teachers … celebrated Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre while at the same time asking when their UNRWA salaries will be paid.”
UNRWA has fired 12 staffers who allegedly took part in the Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel, although the agency has denied that it promotes antisemitism or terrorism, citing its efforts to distribute humanitarian aid in Gaza. The UN agency has also accused Israel of forcing Hamas detainees to falsely admit connections to UNRWA, an allegation denied by Israeli authorities.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said earlier this month that over 450 UNRWA members were affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another terrorist group in Gaza.
Other reports have accused the UN agency of promoting incitement against Israel and Jews. For example, a 2023 joint report by Impact-se and UN Watch found that UNRWA employees had created classroom material celebrating the firebombing of a Jewish bus as a “barbecue party,” encouraging students to pursue jihad and martyrdom, erasing Israel from maps, and encouraging students to “liberate the homeland” with “their blood,” among other examples of incitement to radicalism.
Amid such scrutiny, several major donor countries to UNRWA have suspended payments to the agency. This included the US, the largest donor to UNRWA to which it gave over $371 million in 2023.
The White House and the US Congress this week reached a deal to halt funding to UNRWA until March 2025 — after November’s presidential election — as part of a military funding bill that allocated aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s leading 2024 candidate, cut funding to UNRWA in 2018 — a move that was ultimately reversed when current President Joe Biden took office. Biden is set to face Trump in the general election.
UNRWA’s future role in Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war ends has been a point of discussion in the Jewish state. Hebrew media reported recently that the Israeli government has outlined plans to root out the agency completely from Gaza following the war.
The post ‘Hamas Branch in Jerusalem Must Be Closed!’ Israelis Protest Outside UNRWA Office, Accuse Agency of Terrorism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘With or Without Russia’s Help’: Iran Pledges to Block South Caucasus Route Opened Up By Peace Deal
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – Iran will block the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus region with or without Moscow’s help, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader was quoted as saying on Saturday by the Iran International website, one day after the historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“Mr. Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Ali Akbar Velayati said of the so-called Zangezur corridor, the establishment of which is stipulated in the peace deal unveiled on Friday by US President Donald Trump. The White House said the transit route would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” the Khamenei advisor added.
Baku and Yerevan have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting or forcing almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
Yet that painful history was put to the side on Friday at the White House, as Trump oversaw a signing ceremony, flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The peace deal with Azerbaijan—a pro-Western ally of Israel—is expected to pull Armenia out of the Russian and Iranian sphere of influence and could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran.
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UK Police Arrest 150 at Protest for Banned Palestine Action Group
People holding signs sit during a rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, August 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday it had arrested 150 people at a protest against Britain’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action, adding it was making further arrests.
Officers made arrests after crowds, waving placards expressing support for the group, gathered in Parliament Square, the force said on X.
Protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, chanted “shame on you” and “hands off Gaza,” and held signs such as “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” video taken by Reuters at the scene showed.
In July, British lawmakers banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.
The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban.
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‘No Leniency’: Iran Announces Arrest of 20 ‘Zionist Agents’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
i24 News – Iranian authorities have in recent months arrested 20 people charged with being “Israeli Mossad operatives,” the judiciary said, adding that the Islamic regime will mete out the harshest punishments.
“The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all,” spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri told Iranian media. However, it is understood that an unspecified number of detainees were released, apparently after the charges against them could not be substantiated.
The Islamic Republic was left reeling by a devastating 12-day war with Israel earlier in the summer that left a significant proportion of its military arsenal in ruins and dealt a serious setback to its uranium enrichment program. The fallout included an uptick in executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Hit with international sanctions, the country is in dire economic straights, with frequent energy outages and skyrocketing unemployment.
In recent weeks Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi affirmed that Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program even as it was severely damaged during the war.
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the official told Fox News.