Trump can dismantle UNRWA as 25 senators push for closure

Twenty-five US senators and more than 90 representatives have urged President Trump to dismantle the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, calling it Hamas's front office.

President Trump has multiple legal and financial tools to dismantle the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which 25 US senators and 90 representatives have called Hamas's front office, despite the agency's insulation from accountability at the UN.

"Any aid organization in Gaza or otherwise must be demonstrably free of ties to terrorism and committed to transparency, accountability, and peace," 25 senators led by Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton wrote in a May 18 letter to Trump.

Trump cut UNRWA's funding in 2018 and again in 2025 after revelations that a dozen employees participated in the Hamas invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The USAID Office of Inspector General has since expanded its investigation to examine more than 100 UNRWA employees for potential ties to Hamas. The agency, created by the UN General Assembly in 1949 as a temporary mechanism, has seen its rolls swell from 750,000 to 6 million under a unique hereditary refugee definition that applies to no other displaced population.

Closing UNRWA's Gaza operations would remove what Secretary of State Marco Rubio called a "subsidiary" of Hamas — the agency is one of the biggest employers in the strip, the primary provider of municipal services and author of school curricula. The Trump administration has argued in federal court that UNRWA does not qualify for UN immunity, and a formal State Department policy statement recognizing it as not a UN subsidiary would be binding on courts under the Supreme Court's 2015 Zivotofsky v. Kerry ruling.

The US can also condition payment of UN arrears on three steps: eliminating the hereditability of enrollee status, closing Gaza operations, and waiving UNRWA's immunity for material support of terror. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned the international body faces "imminent financial collapse," giving Washington leverage. The US Treasury can block dollar transfers to UNRWA's Gaza staff under existing sanction authorities — the agency pays its employees in US dollars wired from a New York bank account, which must be converted into Israeli shekels, with Hamas taking a cut on every exchange.

Sanctions and Legal Exposure

Sanctions against UNRWA officials who ran the organization on Oct. 7, including Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini whose term ends in June, could be imposed for supporting a designated foreign terror organization. Lawsuits against UNRWA in US federal courts, including by American families whose relatives were murdered or kidnapped on Oct. 7, have been blocked by the agency's claim of UN immunity. The last time the US withdrew recognition of a UN entity's status, in the 2015 Zivotofsky case, the Supreme Court affirmed the president's absolute discretion over foreign recognition.

For 76 years UNRWA has perpetuated the problem it was created to remedy. If Trump succeeds in dismantling the agency, it would fundamentally reshape the humanitarian and political environment in Gaza, removing what critics say is the primary institutional support structure for Palestinian radicalism. The next steps hinge on whether the State Department issues a formal recognition change and whether the Treasury moves to block dollar flows — both actions the administration can take without congressional approval.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.