White House preparing in case Congress makes UNRWA funding pause permanent

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The White House is preparing for the possibility that Congress will permanently pause funding for the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians, known as UNRWA.

Israel accused 12 employees of UNRWA, or the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, in January of participating in the deadly Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, prompting the United States and more than a dozen other countries to temporarily suspend its funding for the agency.

The U.S. government said it wants to see the results of the United Nations' investigation into UNRWA employees allegedly taking part in the assault by Hamas terrorists that killed more than a thousand people and saw about 250 others taken hostage into Gaza before any decisions can be made on resuming contributions.

"The supplemental request that passed the Senate contained a prohibition on funding for UNRWA," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at Tuesday's daily briefing. "We obviously have a pause in place for funding for UNRWA right now. We have to plan for the fact that Congress may make that pause permanent. I don’t know if that’s going to happen, and we haven’t made any determinations with respect to what the administration will do because we’re waiting on the U.N. investigation. But just as