Susan Collins: “I very much appreciate the comments of the Senator from Nebraska. I agree with him that UNRWA cannot be the conduit for…”

“I very much appreciate the comments of the Senator from Nebraska. I agree with him that UNRWA cannot be the conduit for humanitarian aid. It is clear that it has been infiltrated by Hamas, and indeed Israeli intelligence indicates that specific employees--employees--of UNRWA were involved in the brutal atrocities of October 7 when Hamas attacked Israel. In addition, it is estimated that many other employees of UNRWA are sympathetic to Hamas or affiliated with Hamas. So American tax dollars should not be going through an organization that has been involved--some of its employees--in a terrorist attack, one of the worst terrorist attacks we have seen, a terrorist attack that resulted in the worst loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust. How could we possibly allow American tax dollars to be used by this organization? Now, this is not to say there should not be aid. There are differing views on that issue. But we know there are other organizations within the U.N.--there is the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees organization. There is UNICEF. There is the World Food organization. There are many other organizations. For me, Mr. President, what was most compelling is when I learned that Hamas had a major communications and command control center underneath UNRWA's headquarters, and there were additional Hamas organizations that had locations in the tunnels underneath UNRWA's schools.…”