Video UN defends UNRWA reforms amid questions over Hamas vetting Stéphane Dujarric tells Fox News Digital UNRWA is implementing the Colonna recommendations as a new report questions how many reforms were actually carried out. (Credit: UNTV)
President Donald Trump recently amplified a report about a U.S. government investigation that referred more than 100 current or former UNRWA employees over alleged ties to Hamas — as a new watchdog report accuses the UN agency of overstating how much it has reformed.
The scrutiny, which included Trump sharing the report on Truth Social in August, comes as Geneva-based UN Watch released a report Monday challenging UNRWA’s claim that it has completed 41 of the 50 reforms recommended by an independent review led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.
UN Watch says that when it compared UNRWA’s claims with what Colonna actually recommended, at most 13 of the 50 reforms had been completed as prescribed. The group argues that UNRWA repeatedly counted drafting policies, launching pilot programs or creating plans as completed reforms even when full implementation had not occurred.
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"UNRWA is grading its own homework—and giving itself credit for reforms that exist mainly on paper," UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer told Fox News Digital. "A policy is not a reform if it is ignored, unenforced or blocked by staff unions dominated by Hamas."
Among the examples cited in the report is staff vetting. UNRWA lists a "Commercial Vetting Pilot & Costed Plan" as completed, along with other screening measures. UN Watch argues that a pilot and implementation plan do not amount to a fully operational outside vetting system.
The report also challenges UNRWA’s education reforms. UNRWA lists systematic textbook reviews and randomized classroom inspections among completed steps, while a policy prohibiting problematic educational content is still described as "in progress."
Colonna herself said when presenting her review in April 2024 that some educational content remained problematic, citing "glorification of jihad," incitement to violence and maps that did not show Israel, while calling for a zero-tolerance approach.
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Pressed by Fox News Digital at Tuesday’s UN briefing over who independently verifies whether the reforms are actually working on the ground, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric defended the process.
"It is not just checking boxes for the sake of checking boxes," Dujarric said, "It’s about the implementation of those things."
Dujarric said UNRWA regularly reports to the General Assembly, holds integrity meetings open to member states and gives governments opportunities to scrutinize what the agency is doing.
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This picture taken during a media tour organised by the Israeli army on February 8, 2024, shows Israeli soldiers inside an evacuated compound of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza City. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
Asked specifically about staff screening, he said UNRWA relies in part on countries where it operates.
"We rely on the member states also, where we operate, who have the capacity to check people to do so," Dujarric said, adding that UNRWA shares staff lists with Israeli, Jordanian, Lebanese and Syrian authorities. "If there are concerns, they need to be shared directly with UNRWA. When they are, they take action."
The Colonna review was commissioned by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in February 2024 after allegations that UNRWA employees had participated in the Oct. 7 attacks. Guterres accepted all 50 recommendations in April 2024 and agreed with UNRWA leadership to establish an action plan to implement them.
Neuer rejected the idea that the disagreement is merely about terminology.
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Heavy machinery operates as Israeli forces dismantle the Jerusalem headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), in East Jerusalem, Jan. 20, 2026. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)
"This is not a semantic disagreement over the meaning of ‘completed,’" he said. "UNRWA says the job is done, yet teachers tied to terrorist organizations remain in classrooms, Hamas-dominated unions obstruct discipline, and children continue to be exposed to incitement. Those are real-world consequences, not technicalities."
Efrat (Effie) Lachter is a reporter for Fox News Digital with more than 15 years of experience covering conflict, global affairs, human rights and political accountability. She has directed and produced more than 200 documentary segments across more than 40 countries, documenting conflicts, humanitarian crises, corruption, human trafficking, gender-based violence and the human stories behind major world events.
Lachter’s reporting has taken her into conflict zones and crisis areas across the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa. Her work has included uncovering human trafficking networks, revealing an ISIS underground torture prison in Syria, documenting the war in Ukraine and interviewing senior political figures and world leaders. She was also among the Western journalists who entered Russia after the war began to bring testimonies from Putin’s opposition. Lachter is the recipient of the 2022 Peres Center for Peace Award and was a 2023–2024 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. She also won two Rockower Awards for Excellence in Reporting. She holds a bachelor's degree in communication and a master's degree in political science.
