'Hamas has radicalised children in UNRWA schools in Gaza,' watchdog NGO reports

A report presented in Berlin by the organisation UN Watch has found financial and personnel links between the UN aid agency and Hamas.

Years of inadequate control have enabled Hamas to radicalise an entire generation of Palestinian youth in Gaza in UNRWA schools - Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, levelled this accusation at the UN and donor countries, such as Germany, at a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday.UN Watch is a Geneva-based organisation, and Neuer, who presented the indictment report, is a lawyer and staunch defender of Israel is a known a critic of the actions of the United Nations Human Rights Council.The NGO has set itself the goal of exposing abuses at the United Nations and, in particular, double standards towards Israel.The report shows the financial, operational and personnel links that, according to UN Watch, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has maintained with Hamas.As early as 2011, the UNRWA union in Gaza, under the leadership of Suhail Al-Hindi, vehemently rejected the UNRWA management's plan to introduce Holocaust lessons in schools. At his farewell ceremony in April 2017, Al-Hindi was praised for speaking out against Holocaust education.The report calls for a thorough international review and comprehensive reforms. He rejects the findings of previous UN investigations, such as that of former French minister Catherine Colonna last year, as inadequate.Neuer also called out what he termed UNRWA's perpetual "infantilisation of the Palestinian people", entrenching political dependency, fuelling resentment and preventing genuine self-government and long-term stability, and that its current structure was undermining any path to lasting peace.Closed schools: 'seeds for even more hatred and violence'Representatives of the UN see things very differently.In an interview with Euronews, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini explained that Israel is withholding information on the allegations that Hamas has infiltrated the schools. UNRWA had investigated all allegations.In January 2025, Israel banned UNRWA from operating in the Palestinian territories. According to the aid organisation, it is still trying to support the people in Gaza, but the ongoing Israeli attacks have made this virtually impossible.Lazzarini believes that closed schools are the real danger. "The Israeli forces have destroyed or damaged most of the schools and educational facilities in Gaza. Instead of going back to school like most children around the world, some 660,000 girls and boys in Gaza are now left to rummage through the rubble, desperate, hungry, traumatised and mostly grieving for loved ones," he said, adding that "the longer they stay away from school with their trauma, the greater the danger that they will become a lost generation and thus sow the seeds of even more hatred and violence".UNRWA was founded in 1949 after the Palestine War of 1948, also known as the Israeli War of Independence. Its mission is to provide aid, healthcare and education to millions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and neighbouring Arab countries such as Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.UNRWA is one of two UN refugee organisations. While UNRWA looks after Palestinians, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is responsible for all other refugees worldwide.Hillel Neuer is a Canadian-born international lawyer, and he is considered one of the "100 most influential Jewish personalities in the world," according to Maariv, a prominent national daily newspaper published in Israel.Hamas is not officially listed as a terrorist organisation by the UN. Officials of the UN have condemned specific actions carried out by Hamas's military wing as "acts of terror" or "terrorism," without applying this label to the entire organisation.