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Source: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trump-can-close-hamass-front-office-c96bb3d8
Trump Can Close Hamas's Front Office
(Wall Street Journal) Eugene Kontrovich - Twenty-five U.S. senators and more than 90 representatives have urged President Trump to 'take decisive action to fully dismantle UNRWA.' The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has supported Palestinian radicalism for many decades, in the process becoming Hamas's front office. Mr. Trump cut UNRWA's funding in 2018 and again in 2025, citing revelations that a dozen employees participated in the Hamas invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. But U.N. agencies, and UNRWA especially, are designed to be insulated from accountability. UNRWA was created by the General Assembly in 1949 as a temporary mechanism to assist Arabs displaced during Israel's War of Independence. While it can be closed only by the General Assembly, strategically applied pressure from the U.S. could go a long way. UNRWA pays its Gaza staff in U.S. dollars wired from a New York bank account. Those dollars need to be converted into Israeli shekels, Gaza's de facto currency. Hamas takes a substantial cut on every money exchange, turning UNRWA's payroll into a revenue stream. The U.S. Treasury can block the dollar transfers under existing sanction authorities.