UNRWA could be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize despite some staffers being directly tied to Hamas

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, (UNRWA), which is the Palestinian refugee agency, is potentially being considered for a Nobel Peace Prize, experts say. 

Other groups being considered include the International Court of Justice and UN chief Antonio Guterres, according to Arab News.

“UNRWA could be one such candidate," Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, said in an interview with Reuters. "They’re doing extremely important work for civilian Palestinians that experience the sufferings of the war in Gaza."

However, UNRWA has gotten pushback and criticism for having some of their workers being directly tied to the terrorist group Hamas, which attacked Israel almost a year ago, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 more, resulting in the ongoing war in Gaza. 

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Hamas's top leader in Lebanon, who was killed recently in an Israeli air strike, was a high ranking member of UNRWA. He has been identified as Fateh al-Sharif and he reportedly worked as a school principal for the agency. 

Sharif had been placed on leave by UNRWA due to his ties with Hamas , according to ABC News.

Israel's United Nations ambassador said that UNRWA has been taken over by terrorists. 

"How long will the U.N. continue to bury its head in the sand and ignore the fact that Hamas terrorists have taken over UNRWA? Those who were killed yesterday (Wednesday) in the IDF strike were nine terrorists with blood on their hands, and some of them participated in the barbaric massacre on October 7," Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement, according to Fox News.

While estimates vary, The Wall Street Journal reported in January that based on intelligence reports it had reviewed, at least 12 employees of UNRWA were connected to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, plus around 10% of its Gaza staff of 12,000 have ties to Islamist militant groups.