The United States has temporarily paused ‘additional’ funding for a key United Nations agency in the Gaza Strip over allegations that some of its members were ‘involved’ in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. 

‘UNRWA can read the Beltway press well enough to know that Congress is moving to cut off U.S. funding,’ Richard Goldberg, former National Security Council (NSC) advisor during the Trump Administration, told Fox News Digital. 

‘This is a PR move designed to preempt congressional action. It does nothing to change the fact that UNRWA is complicit in Hamas war crimes and remains a key obstacle to peace,’ Goldberg, currently a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, added.

Twelve United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East employees were allegedly ‘involved’ in the attack, and the U.S. funding will resume subject to an investigation from the United Nations. 

UNRWA, citing information provided by Israeli authorities, terminated the contract with the accused employees on Friday and announced an investigation ‘to protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance’ and ‘establish the truth without delay,’ Reuters reported. 

The U.S. State Department in a press release said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres regarding the investigation, which will be ‘comprehensive and independent.’ The U.S. insisted that it must see ‘complete accountability for anyone who participated in the heinous attacks of Oct. 7.’ 

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant praised the U.S. decision as ‘an important step in holding UNRWA accountable.’ 

‘At least a dozen UNRWA employees participated in the horrific attack conducted on Oct. 7: These are ‘humanitarian workers,’ with salaries paid for by international donations, with blood on their hands,’ Gallant said in a press release following the State Department’s announcement. 

‘Major changes need to take place so that international efforts, funds, and humanitarian initiatives don’t fuel Hamas terrorism and the murder of Israelis,’ Gallant wrote. ‘Terrorism under the guise of humanitarian work is a disgrace to the U.N. and the principles it claims to represent.’

The decision follows growing allegations that started in Dec. 2023 when an Israeli citizen taken hostage by Hamas said upon release that they had remained captive in the attic of a UNRWA teacher. Another hostage claimed that a Gazan doctor – allegedly a pediatrician – helped hold another hostage captive for Hamas. 

UNRWA pushed back on the claim, calling it ‘unsubstantiated’ after the Israeli journalist did not immediately respond to their requests for additional information, saying in an official statement, ‘UNRWA and other entities in the United Nations have asked the journalist to provide more information on what we consider to be a very serious allegation. Despite repeated demands, the journalist has not responded,’ it was claimed.

UNRWA has faced several allegations, including corruption and directly helping Hamas, as documented in an X community note. Reuters reported on a former headmaster at a UNRWA school who helped build rockets for Islamic Jihad while employed by the agency, as well as posts from several UNRWA teachers and administrators celebrating the Oct. 7 attack.

The State Department under former President Trump cut ties with UNRWA in 2018, but President Biden resumed the relationship shortly after taking office. He continued to improve spending for the organization, with funds exceeding $1 billion. 

Blinken also visited UNRWA HQ in November following his visit to Jordan during a visit to the Middle East. During that visit he praised the organization’s humanitarian work in Gaza even as reports of UNRWA workers’ involvement in the Hamas attack swirled. 

The House Foreign Affairs Committee announced around Christmas 2023 that it would launch its own investigation into UNRWA and the alleged ties to Hamas: Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., insisted that there was ‘extensive evidence of a troubling connection between UNRWA and Hamas, and it is far deeper than was known.’ 

Goldberg compared the recent decision to that of the Biden administration’s approach to the Iran assets following the Hamas attack, with many pressuring the White House to refreeze assets for Tehran due to its direct ties to the terrorist group. 

‘This looks a lot like the administration’s response to outcries over the $6 billion for Iran after Oct. 7,’ Goldberg argued. ‘In the face of imminent legislation, the administration claimed it had frozen the money – but no law exists to enforce that temporary freeze.’

‘Here, too, I fear the administration wants to get ahead of Congress prohibiting the aid in law, only to turn the spigot on once the supplemental has passed,’ he said. 

Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes contributed to this report. 

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., confronted an anti-Israel protester in a Senate office building stairwell on Thursday afternoon, after the woman claimed Hamas was ‘legitimately’ voted in by the Palestinian people.

In a video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, Tillis can be heard telling the protester ‘Hamas has caused this carnage, Hamas has to cease to represent the Palestinian people so we can save them and protect them.’

The unidentified protester, who a Tillis staffer said was with the feminist activist group Code Pink, can be heard that saying ‘Hamas were legitimately voted in’ in 2006.

Tillis fired back at the protester and said ‘they canceled future elections.’

‘They are dictators who have raped and murdered Israelis,’ Tillis said. ‘When the people of Palestine elect somebody in a free election, I’ll be arguing for a ceasefire.’

The unidentified Code Pink protester then said ‘Israel won’t let them have an election,’ to which Tillis shot back and said ‘Hamas will not let them have an election.’

‘No, it’s Israel, Israel is the occupier sir,’ she said. 

One of Tillis’s aides who recorded the video told Fox News Digital the interaction occurred after a Senate, Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee meeting. The aide said the protester was waiting outside the room when the meeting ended and began following Tillis.

According to its website, Code Pink is ‘a feminist grassroots organization working to end U.S. warfare and imperialism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect resources into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs.’

Code Pink told Fox News Digital ‘no comment,’ but referred to a statement on their website applauding ‘the decisive stance the International Court of Justice (ICJ) took in its preliminary ruling on South Africa v. Israel.’

‘The Court ordered Israel to cease all actions tantamount to genocide and to facilitate humanitarian aid to mitigate the unfolding humanitarian crisis urgently, which is a crucial step toward justice,’ the statement read. 

Earlier this month, South Africa launched a case at the United Nations’ top court alleging that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide.

The United Nations’ top court is set to rule Friday on a call for Israel to halt its military offensive in Gaza, when it issues a preliminary decision in a case accusing Israel of committing genocide in the tiny coastal enclave.

Top of the South African list is a request for the court to order Israel to ‘immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.’ It is also asking for Israel to take ‘reasonable measures’ to prevent genocide and allow access for desperately needed aid.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

EXCLUSIVE: Lawmakers’ frustrations over Congress’ new tax bill are forcing House GOP leaders to rely on Democrat votes to get it over the line next week, sources said.

House leadership released details for the bipartisan agreement from House and Senate negotiators earlier this week, which includes tax deductions to bolster American businesses as well as a temporary extension of the Child Tax Credit (CTC). 

Three sources told Fox News Digital that they understand the bill will get a vote on the House floor next week. Normally, legislation will advance through the Rules Committee first and then get a procedural ‘rule’ vote on the House floor, almost always along party lines, before needing a simple majority to pass.

But the sources told Fox News Digital that Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Ways & Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., aim to push it straight to the House floor under ‘suspension of the rules,’ bypassing procedural steps in exchange for raising the threshold for passage to two-thirds. 

Republican hardliners weaponized the rule vote several times this session to bring down legislation by their own party in protest of House GOP leaders’ decisions. Johnson holds just a thin majority of 219 Republicans to 213 Democrats, so raising the threshold for passage of the bill, which is expected to be bipartisan anyway, means he’ll need at least 75 Democrats on board if the House is in full attendance.

‘From everything I can understand, the issue is that Freedom Caucus folks are going to essentially bring down any of the rules that we have in the near future, as long as the immigration situation is hanging out there, and the budget situation is hanging out there,’ a senior GOP aide said. 

The Freedom Caucus has previously held up the House floor over disagreements on government funding and border policy, issues that are still very much under discussion.

It’s not just them, however – Republicans who represent the politically fickle suburbs outside major cities in New York, California and elsewhere are frustrated that the tax bill does not touch state and local tax (SALT) deductions. 

Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., who was part of a Thursday night meeting with Johnson and other Republicans concerned about the issue, said that lifting the $10,000 SALT deduction cap was critical to middle-class families. He also argued that it would be critical to deciding who holds the House next year.

‘The bill is not necessarily a bad bill. . . . I just think it’s asinine to not take advantage of this opportunity to address an issue that matters in districts that will determine who has the majority in the next Congress,’ Garcia said before the meeting.

Meanwhile, top members of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus told Fox News Digital that hardliners have their separate issues with the bill, namely arguing that the CTC can be claimed by illegal immigrants who have children in the United States.

‘The overall brand that the GOP right now is funding wars and tax cuts for corporations. I’m sorry. I was sent here to cut spending and to secure the border,’ Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said.

‘Some of the tax policies I firmly support, but we should be making tax policy permanent, not these, like, temporary little additions. I think that’s a problem. And importantly, the child tax credits . . . going to children of people here illegally, and there not being real brakes on that possibility.’

Former Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, R-Pa., was blunter in his assessment: ‘I can’t imagine why we’re doing it, or why we’re attempting to do it. And it’s not improving a lot of the lives of the people that I represent, and so I’m very discouraged by it.’

He said that allowing the CTC to go to illegal immigrants ‘is absolutely something that should be a red line for every single Republican,’ and bypassing the rules to put the bill on the floor next week ‘should be a signal to everybody that you’re heading in the wrong direction.’

Chairman Smith pushed back against those accusations in a statement to Fox News Digital: ‘The Child Tax Credit reforms in this bill are pro-family policies that maintain the child tax credit structure of the Trump-era GOP tax reform. It halts any push for monthly checks and provides no special loopholes for illegal immigrants. In fact, the plan still requires a Social Security number for children, which was added in the 2017 GOP tax reform.’

‘The Child Tax Credit provisions in this bill help families crushed by inflation, removes the penalty for families with multiple children, and maintains work requirements,’ he said.

Garcia, who admitted he was still hopeful that something could be done on SALT deductions, confirmed that he had pressed Smith about the issue at another GOP lawmaker meeting last week. He pointed out the deduction caps were still expiring either way in 2025.

‘We can address this right now, on our terms, get a win out of it politically,’ Garcia said. ‘Or we can do nothing, lose potentially a lot of races because we passed this opportunity to address SALT, which is very important to New York and California, and then try to have a conversation about the new policies when . . . we’ve lost the majority because we passed this opportunity to help the swing district members get a win on the SALT cap.’ 

The bill was always likely to pass with bipartisan support, sailing out of committee on a 40-3 vote. But putting it up under suspension emphasizes the politically precarious position Johnson finds himself in while presiding over a razor-thin majority in one of the most divided GOP conferences in modern history.

Fox News Digital reached out to Johnson’s office for comment, as well as the offices of Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., but did not immediately hear back.

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that he does not support efforts to pressure the Republican National Committee into declaring him a ‘presumptive nominee.’

The former president made the remarks Thursday on his proprietary social media platform, Truth Social.

‘While I greatly appreciate the Republican National Committee (RNC) wanting to make me their PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE, and while they have far more votes than necessary to do it, I feel, for the sake of PARTY UNITY, that they should NOT go forward with this plan, but that I should do it the ‘Old Fashioned’ way, and finish the process off AT THE BALLOT BOX,’ Trump wrote.

Trump’s statement pushes back on efforts led by a former aide of his campaign, David Bossie — an RNC committee member who has urged Republicans to rally around the former president despite the ongoing primary.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is facing growing calls for her to leave the 2024 presidential race as the RNC nearly considered a resolution to declare Trump the party’s presumptive nominee.

The RNC was set to consider a resolution that, if approved, would have declared Trump to be the party’s presumptive nominee for president in 2024. Fox News Digital obtained a copy of the resolution on Thursday, but it was later withdrawn.

In a statement, RNC spokesperson Keith Schipper said, ‘Resolutions, such as this one, are brought forward by members of the RNC. Chairwoman McDaniel doesn’t offer resolutions. This will be taken up by the Resolutions Committee, and they will decide whether to send this resolution to be voted on by the 168 RNC members at our annual meeting next week.’

Haley’s campaign told Fox News Digital it was up to the millions of Republican voters across the country to decide who the party’s nominee will be, ‘not a bunch of Washington insiders.’

Trump trounced his rivals with convincing wins in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary this month, and experts agree there is likely little hope for Haley — the only alternative to the former president remaining in the race — in the upcoming South Carolina primary despite it being her home state.

Fox News Digital’s Brandon Gillespie and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.