Dozens of protesters arrived Wednesday morning to block the UNRWA offices in Jerusalem, calling on the Israeli government to ban UNRWA's activities in Israel.
UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and focuses on helping second- and third-generation "refugees" in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority. A full 9,500 of its 12,000 employees are affiliated with the Hamas or Islamic Jihad terror groups; 440 are active members of Hamas; and at least 12 played an active role in the October 7 massacres.
"The US has already understood and ended the funding - but here in Israel we haven't," the protesters pointed out. "We must close the Hamas branch in Jerusalem - now."
Rachel Libman, grandmother of Elyakim Libman, who was kidnapped to Gaza, said, "You know where he is and where they all are, you can bring him back now, together with everyone else. Why aren't you doing that? Bring them back quickly - today."
Shlomo Sarid, one of the founders of the Tzav 9 movement and a soldier who fought in Gaza, said, "I was in Gaza, my friends and I saw, inside, that in every preschool there is a tunnel, in every school there is a weapons storehouse, and all of UNRWA's school textbooks incite to terror. In essence, we can understand that UNRWA is the root of Hamas, and we are at war against them."