A bipartisan group of senators has sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry asking him to launch an investigation into the actions of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip.
Sens. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.), Ben Cardin (D., Md.), and Marco Rubio (R, Fla.) want Kerry to look into many troubling incidents involving UNRWA, such as when rockets were found in a Gaza school run by the agency and later were returned to Hamas.
"I am demanding a credible and independent assessment of UNRWA's actions during this crisis," Kirk said. "Given UNRWA's ties to terrorism in the past, U.S. taxpayers deserve immediate answers and full transparency regarding their intentions and actions. The State Department must make clear to the U.N. that it needs to take all necessary steps to prevent Hamas from using taxpayer-funded property to launch terror attacks against our allies."
"As the U.N.'s leading source of funding, American taxpayers will not tolerate the use of U.N. facilities by terrorists to stage attacks against our allies," Rubio said. "We know Hamas has been using civilians as human shields and stores its weapons and fighters in civilian buildings, but for the U.N. to stand idly by while Hamas attacks Israel from its facilities is an outrage. This is the latest example of why the U.S. needs to bring greater transparency and accountability to the U.N. by pursuing reform of its programs and institutions."