Republican Congressman Darrell Issa told Fox News Digital it would be a ‘huge help’ if President Biden disavowed and rejected donations from progressive groups that are fueling the anti-Israel protests nationwide, while also explaining that the tepid response from Democrats shows the rise of anti-Semitism within the party.

If the president would come out, whether it’s George Soros or a host of other supporters and be honest and say that, you know, not only would he send the money back but he wants them to stop funding people who support violence it would be a huge help,’ Issa said. ‘I don’t expect him to do it.’

The anti-Israel protests have been organized by groups fueled by progressive donors, including George Soros, some of whom have also donated to the Democratic Party and Biden, Fox News Digital reported last month.

Soros recently gave $250,000 to help Biden win re-election and Politico reported earlier this month that some major Biden donors have also funded groups associated with the college protests. 

Issa told Fox News Digital that the response to the protest from Democrats has been an example that anti-Semitism has found a home within the party. 

The growth of The Squad and people who think the same and are willing to talk the same, or at least support them has certainly caused people to realize that the party of the Democrats of Robert F Kennedy, John Kennedy and for that matter of Steny Hoyer is gone,’ Issa told Fox News Digital this week.  

‘They’re no longer willing to stand up for Israel or against anti-Semitism and it’s now coming home to be seen in these incredible amounts of votes where they won’t support Israel.’

Issa told Fox News Digital he is ‘deeply disappointed’ by President Biden’s response to the anti-Israel protests on college campuses nationwide and explained that the president’s desire to ‘placate’ both sides is an indicator that anti-Semitism has been festering in the Democratic Party for years. 

I think President Biden is trying to placate both sides, tell both sides that he’s in the middle,’ Issa said. ‘He’s managed to upset the Middle Eastern community many of whom wanted decisive action and the Israel and pro-Israel community who see him as hurting the effort to bring to an end, if you will, Hamas and their allies.’

‘I’m really sad because, historically, they’ve enjoyed both Arab and Israeli pro-Israel votes, Jewish votes and the Republicans have always been the party that has supported Israel. George W Bush, no stronger friend, President Trump, no stronger friend. You know, president after president promised to move the embassy to Jerusalem. President Trump did it. So, when you really look at it you realize that for a long time we’ve been the pro-Israel party. Only now are people realizing that real anti-Semitism exists in the Democratic Party, and it’s condoned there.’

President Biden waited 9 days before giving on-camera remarks about the anti-Israel violence on campus which Issa said was a key reason why the protests spread the way they did. 

‘President Biden needed to say on day one to all the governors of either party that you act or I will act because, in fact, the civil disobedience that turns into violence is a federal issue,’ Issa said. ‘Had he done that, had he challenged the governors to go in aggressively and quickly, this would be over instead of watching it grow.’

Issa, who was in high school in Ohio during the unrest and shootings at Kent State University in 1970, told Fox News Digital he is concerned that history is repeating itself.

‘As someone who was in high school when Kent State had its riot and not only did they close after May 4th but so did almost every university around the country, I see history repeating itself in a nasty way,’ Issa said. ‘The protests against the Vietnam War were fine, violence wasn’t fine, and they were slow to get past it because many of the professors were on the same side as the students.’

Issa continued, ‘This is the same situation, the anti-Semitism on campus, the elite are part of that. They’ve been teaching it for a long time, and as a result, they have a hard time enforcing. Very few states, even governors have been willing to do what Governor Youngkin in Virginia and others did, which was act quickly and if it didn’t work, act again. In my home state of California, it’s amazing that UCLA was able to build a building faster than anyone in California is allowed to get a permit. They built it out of plywood and everyone watched as they did it and then they finally tried to slow it down or stop it, and it was too late.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response.

A shipment of two types of precision bombs to Israel remains in limbo after being paused by the U.S. in opposition to Israeli forces’ operation in Rafah.

The shipment contains 1,800 2,000-pound bombs, and 1,700 500-pound bombs the Biden administration has said may be used in Rafah.

Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder confirmed the shipment of bombs was paused, though the future of the shipment remains undetermined.

‘We’ve not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment,’ Ryder said.

A U.S. official said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the U.S. position has been that Israel should not launch a major ground operation in Rafah, where over a million people are currently sheltering.

‘We have been engaging in a dialogue with Israel in our Strategic Consultative Group format on how they will meet the humanitarian needs of civilians in Rafah, and how to operate differently against Hamas there than they have elsewhere in Gaza,’ the official continued. ‘Those discussions are ongoing and have not fully addressed our concerns. As Israeli leaders seemed to approach a decision point on such an operation, we began to carefully review proposed transfers of particular weapons to Israel that might be used in Rafah. This began in April.’

Following this review, the U.S. decided last week to pause shipment of the bombs, according to the official, who said the administration is ‘especially focused’ on the end-use of the 2,000-pound bombs and ‘the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza.’

The official also emphasized that these shipments do not have anything to do with the Israel supplemental appropriations passed last month.

The statement from the U.S. official comes after two Israeli officials told Axios that U.S.-manufactured ammunition to Israel was paused last week for the first time since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack against the Jewish state.

On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces announced that it had gained operational control of the Gazan side of the Rafah Crossing after troops began a ‘precise counterterrorism operation’ in eastern Rafah aimed at killing Hamas terrorists and dismantling ‘Hamas terrorist infrastructure within specific areas of eastern Rafah.’

Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.

Two months after ending her White House bid, Nikki Haley will huddle early next week with some of the top donors to her Republican presidential campaign, sources confirmed to Fox News. 

The former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in former President Trump’s administration will use the two-day gathering Monday and Tuesday in Charleston, South Carolina, to thank her major contributors.

But a source in Haley’s orbit says the former presidential candidate isn’t expected to encourage donors to contribute to Trump’s general election campaign and that no endorsement of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee is pending.

The news was first reported Thursday by the Wall Street Journal.

Haley launched her presidential campaign in February 2023, becoming the first major candidate to challenge Trump, who had announced his candidacy three months earlier. And she was the final rival to Trump, battling the former president in a two-candidate showdown from the New Hampshire primary in late January through Super Tuesday in early March.

Haley announced she was suspending her White House campaign March 6, the day after Trump swept 14 of 15 GOP nominating contests on Super Tuesday.

However, Haley made it clear when she exited the Republican presidential nomination race she intends to keep speaking out.

‘While I will no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using my voice for the things I believe in,’ she emphasized as she spoke at her presidential campaign headquarters on Daniel Island in her hometown of Charleston.

To date, Haley has declined to endorse Trump.

‘It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he does that,’ Haley said in March, as she pointed to those who supported her during her White House run.

Haley has not spoken with Trump since exiting the race, the source in her orbit confirmed to Fox News.

Some top members of Haley’s campaign, including some from the fundraising team, are expected to attend next week’s gathering. Haley and groups aligned with her campaign hauled in over $160 million from nearly 300,000 donors. 

In a sign of potential trouble for Trump in his general election rematch with President Biden later this year, Haley continues to grab votes in the Republican primaries even though she’s long gone from the presidential nomination race.

Haley won nearly 22% of the vote in Tuesday’s GOP presidential primary in Indiana, which was open to not only Republicans but also independents and Democrats.

Last month, Haley joined the Washington, D.C.-based Hudson Institute, a research organization focused on foreign and domestic policy, national security, economics and international relations.

‘Nikki is a proven, effective leader on both foreign and domestic policy,’ Hudson President and CEO John P. Walters said in an announcement. ‘In an era of worldwide political upheaval, she has remained a steadfast defender of freedom and an effective advocate for American security and prosperity. We are honored to have her join the Hudson team.’

During her White House bid, Haley advocated a muscular U.S. foreign policy to deal with global hot spots such as the war between Russia and Ukraine and the fighting between Israel and Hamas, often offering a stark contrast with Trump’s America First agenda of keeping the nation out of international entanglements.

Haley traded fire over America’s overseas role with rival Vivek Ramaswamy, an advocate of Trump’s America First philosophy, during the GOP presidential primary debates.

President Biden gave a three-word response when he was asked whether he would debate former President Trump prior to the election.

‘Set it up,’ the Democratic president told reporters following a ceremony celebrating the WNBA Champions, the Las Vegas Aces, on Thursday afternoon.

Biden’s statement came after Trump repeatedly said he would debate Biden ‘anywhere, anytime, anyplace.’

Two weeks ago, Biden said that he would be ‘happy’ to debate the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee. 

‘I am, somewhere. I don’t know when,’ the president said in an interview with broadcaster Howard Stern on Friday, April 26. ‘I’m happy to debate him.’

Shortly after Biden’s interview with Stern, Trump posted to his Truth Social account inviting Biden to debate him at the courthouse in Lower Manhattan. 

‘In the alternative, he’s in New York City today, although probably doesn’t know it, and so am I, stuck in one of the many Court cases that he instigated as ELECTION INTERFERENCE AGAINST A POLITICAL OPPONENT – A CONTINUING WITCH HUNT!’ Trump posted to Truth Social. ‘It’s the only way he thinks he can win. In fact, let’s do the Debate at the Courthouse tonight – on National Television, I’ll wait around!’ 

The former president also suggested the White House as the venue, saying it would be ‘very comfortable’ for the pair. 

‘We’ll do it at the White House,’ Trump said. ‘That would be very comfortable, actually. You tell me where. We’re ready.’ 

Trump has repeatedly told reporters that he is ‘ready, willing and able’ to debate Biden.

‘We’re ready, willing and able. We don’t see him and I don’t think he’ll be here. Maybe next week he’ll do it,’ Trump told reporters at the Manhattan Criminal Court.

‘I doubt it,’ Trump said. ‘But maybe next week.’

Biden has not nailed down a date to debate Trump, saying last month that his participation would depend on the former president’s behavior.

‘Depends on his behavior,’ Biden said. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to Biden’s campaign for comment, but has not yet heard back.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

Shortly after President Biden announced Wednesday that he would withhold weapons from Israel if it entered the southern Gaza city of Rafah, former Vice President Mike Pence accused him of hypocrisy, in light of how his former boss was impeached on similar grounds.

On Wednesday, Biden lamented Gazan civilian casualties to CNN host Erin Burnett, telling her he ‘made it clear if they go into Rafah… I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah; to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem.’

‘We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently. It’s just wrong.’

On X, formerly Twitter, Pence tore into Biden, calling his comments ‘totally unacceptable.’

‘I’m old enough to remember when Democrats impeached another president for supposedly withholding foreign aid that had been approved by Congress,’ he said.

‘Stop the threats, Joe. America Stands with Israel.’

In comments to Fox News Digital, Pence said Biden abandoned Israel in order to ‘win over the Hamas apologist wing of his party.’

‘Israel is our ally and the only message we should be sending is that we will stand beside them until they finish the job in Gaza and eradicate Hamas, once and for all,’ Pence said. 

‘Congress passed the legislation, President Biden signed it, and it is his job to execute it. He can’t withhold aid for political convenience.’

The Indiana Republican said Democrats used the same exact argument to impeach then-President Trump over his 2018 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump reportedly asked Zelenskyy to look into the Hunter Biden-Burisma affair while dangling $214 million in U.S. security assistance, which Democrats considered an act of soliciting foreign election interference.

‘Israel is our most cherished ally,’ Pence went on to say. ‘And they deserve American support to defeat Hamas – not to be used as a political pawn.’ 

On Thursday, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., took his criticism a step further by calling on the House to initiate similar impeachment proceedings against the incumbent.

‘The House has no choice but to impeach Biden based on the Trump-Ukraine precedent of withholding foreign aid to help with reelection,’ he said.

‘Only with Biden, it’s true.’

In Trump’s case, Democrats claimed it was ‘undisputed’ that Trump asked Zelenskyy for a political favor in return for security assistance.

In opening remarks by Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., at a December 2019 impeachment inquiry hearing, he alleged Trump’s call with Zelenskyy was part of ‘concerted effort’ to ‘solicit a personal advantage in the next election – this time, in the form of an investigation of his political adversaries by a foreign government.’

In an apparent response to Biden’s warning, Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, introduced the Immediate Support for Israel Act on Friday, which she said would force the administration to deliver aid and support passed by Congress.

‘Weeks ago, Congress came together in a bipartisan manner to pass an aid package for Israel. In an unprecedented move, President Biden not only halted the shipment of aid but also unilaterally added conditions to that very same aid – defying Congressional intent. Israel is currently engaged in a war with a terrorist organization that is still holding over 100 civilian hostages. There is simply no excuse for this delay,’ Van Duyne said in a statement obtained by Fox News.

In a statement in Hebrew on the eve of Israeli Independence Day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, ‘If we need to stand alone, we will stand alone.’

‘I have said that, if necessary, we will fight with our fingernails.’

Meanwhile, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who has been vocally critical of antisemitism on campus, responded to a clip of Biden’s CNN interview with the comment: ‘Crazy: This is one of the worst acts against an ally of a sitting president ever.’

‘Hopefully, this means he won’t be sitting for much longer,’ Ackman wrote on X.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pence’s reaction.

Fox News’ Chad Pergram and Yonat Friling contributed to this report.

Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., is preparing impeachment articles against President Biden over his threat to halt U.S. offensive aid to Israel, the first-term lawmaker told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

Mills accused Biden of forcing Israel into a ‘quid pro quo’ situation by leveraging U.S. dollars against the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza, drawing parallels to Democrats’ first impeachment of former President Trump over his handling of Ukraine aid.

‘The House has no choice but to impeach President ‘Quid pro Joe’ Biden. As Vice President, Biden was caught threatening to withhold funding and aid to Ukraine unless they fired the attorney general investigating Burisma, a company financially benefiting his son Hunter, not to mention the 10% share for ‘the big guy’ himself,’ Mills said in a statement.

‘Now, Joe Biden is pressuring Israel, our biggest ally in the Middle East, by pausing their funding that has already been approved in the House, if they don’t stop all operations with Hamas. It’s a very clear message, ‘this for that.’’

‘These are the same accusations made against President Trump, which resulted in his impeachment by Democrats. The same must happen for Joe Biden, which is why we’re drawing up articles of impeachment now,’ Mills finished.

Biden made the high-stakes ultimatum to Israel’s government in a CNN interview that aired Wednesday night as it prepares for a ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The city is currently home to more than a million Palestinians who left other parts of the Gaza Strip, where Israel has conducted its mission to eradicate the terrorist group Hamas.

Biden said Israel would continue to see U.S. support for its defensive systems, like the Iron Dome, in the CNN interview. He added, however, that ‘if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem.’

The remarks prompted a flurry of backlash from Republicans and some moderate Democrats. Several more GOP lawmakers voiced support for impeaching Biden over the decision, arguing there are parallels to Trump’s withholding of weapons aid to Ukraine in exchange for announcing an investigation into the Biden family.

Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., called on the House to open an immediate impeachment inquiry, arguing that Biden was motivated by political reasons.

‘Given Democrats’ Trump-Ukraine precedent, President Biden’s decision to withhold lethal aid to our ally, Israel, for political gain is undoubtedly an impeachable offense. Clearly, the nefarious motive behind our commander in chief’s move to condition U.S. aid to Israel is to appease radical leftists and Hamas sympathizers ahead of the 2024 election,’ Clyde said. ‘The House must immediately open an impeachment inquiry due to the president’s disastrous decision to play politics with national security.’

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital, ‘The Democrats made their bed, and now they’re [lying] in it. This is just the latest on a long list of reasons to impeach Biden, including the deadline withdrawal in Afghanistan and allowing more than 9 million illegal immigrants to invade our southern border.’

It’s highly unlikely for the push to reach the level of a Senate trial, with the House’s current ongoing impeachment inquiry into Biden still searching for smoking gun evidence amid a mountain of accusations of improper behavior and bribery. 

But it shows the sky-high tensions that have taken over Washington amid Israel’s war on Hamas after the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., stopped short of calling for impeachment, but said, ‘The president is essentially threatening an arms embargo on our closest ally in the Middle East that is fighting a terror army holding American citizens hostage. Withholding critical munitions that Congress appropriated and Biden himself signed into law is wrong.’

The first member of Congress to make the call was Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., posting on X early on Thursday morning, ‘The House has no choice but to impeach Biden based on the Trump-Ukraine precedent of withholding foreign aid to help with reelection. Only with Biden, it’s true.’

When reached for comment, the White House referred Fox News Digital to remarks made on Thursday morning by White House national security communications adviser John Kirby saying, ‘The president and his team have been clear for several weeks that we do not support a major ground operation in Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltering with nowhere safe to go.

‘We propose alternative methods of defeating Hamas that do not involve a major ground operation in Rafah. Those conversations with the Israeli government are ongoing. The president said yesterday that if Israel in fact proceeds with a major ground operation in Rafah, he will not provide certain categories of weapons to support such an operation. The Israeli government has understood this for some time now.’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video message on Thursday vowing that Israel ‘will stand alone’ to defeat Hamas, if necessary, after President Biden threatened to withhold weapon shipments to the Jewish State should Netanyahu proceed with an invasion of Rafah. 

Netanyahu echoed the 1948 Israeli war of independence in his remarks, saying that despite a weapons embargo on Israel, Israelis had fought and defeated the Arab nations who attacked the nascent Jewish state, thanks to their bravery and unity.

‘Today, we are much stronger,’ the prime minister said. ‘We are determined, and we are united in order to defeat our enemies and those who want to destroy us.’

‘If we need to stand alone, we will stand alone,’ Netanyahu continued.

Netanyahu’s remarks come a day after Biden said that he wouldn’t supply Israel with weapons to attack Rafah, Hamas’ last stronghold in Gaza, over concerns about more than one million civilians sheltering there.

‘Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,’ Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in an interview released Wednesday. 

‘I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem,’ Biden said.

Biden clarified that the U.S. will continue sending defensive weapons to Israel, such as supplies for Israel’s Iron Dome.

Israel has ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians from the city. Israeli forces have also carried out what it describes as ‘targeted strikes’ on the eastern part of Rafah.

President Biden was criticized for pausing a weapons shipment to Israel and purportedly keeping his decision quiet until after his Holocaust Remembrance Day address, in which he compared Hamas to the Nazis. Israeli critics argue he is now backpedaling from his ironclad commitment to the Jewish state by delaying deliveries of vital precision weapons to Jerusalem.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said during an interview with Israeli Channel 12 TV news that he believed the move stemmed from political pressure on Biden from Congress, the U.S. campus protests and the upcoming election.

On Thursday, U.S. State Department spokesman Matt Miller addressed Biden’s comments and said that the U.S. will ‘always be committed to Israel’s security’ and helping the Jewish State to defend against Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and threats from other terrorist groups.

‘I’m not going to get ahead of what the president said last night. We are reviewing,’ Miller said. ‘We have paused one shipment. We are reviewing others. But as the president made clear, we will always be committed to Israel’s defense. 

Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn, Benjamin Weinthal and Nicholas Kalman, along with The Associated Press, contributed to this report.

President Biden’s threat to halt offensive weapons shipments to Israel is prompting a wave of backlash among the House GOP, as progressive Democrats take a victory lap to celebrate the move.

Republican lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital accused Biden of caving to pressure brought on by widespread anti-Israel demonstrations across the U.S. Leftists, meanwhile, praised student activists protesting on college campuses, and encouraged them to keep going even as tensions at some of these events have already erupted in conflict between police and protesters.

‘First it was using Hoosier tax dollars to cancel student loans, now he’s bowing to the demands of Little Gazas on Ivy League campuses,’ Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital. ‘It’s very clear Biden cares more about blue-haired gender studies majors than he does farmers, police officers, truckers, or the millions of other Americans who work hard to make our country great.’

Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., suggested to Fox News Digital that the president was motivated by threats to his re-election bid from the progressive left.

‘Joe Biden is putting his fear of a hundred thousand progressives in Michigan ahead of the security of the U.S. and Israel. This is politics at its worst and sends a disgraceful message to our allies,’ Waltz said.

Biden’s announcement also caught heat from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who called it a ‘dangerous mistake.’

‘This shortsighted move will call into question U.S. reliability around the world,’ he said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital by the committee.

And the No. 4 House Republican, GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said: ‘Joe Biden is prioritizing appeasing the pro-Hamas base of the Democrat Party over returning American and Israeli hostages and supporting Israel’s right to exist.’

On the other side of the aisle, members of the far-left ‘Squad’ suggested Biden’s harsher stance on Israel was due in part to the campus protests.

‘This is what young people across the country were protesting for and finally the needle has moved in a significant way. I hope we see more progress, but don’t ever let people tell you that your voices are meaningless and your actions are worthless. The arc of what is possible is always within us to bend,’ Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., wrote on X, along with a portion of Biden’s CNN interview warning Israel not to invade Rafah.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., said on X, ‘We have to keep standing for what is right. Organizing is working. Protesting is working.’

The college protests here have garnered bipartisan criticism from virtually all Republicans and a significant number of Democrats, but progressives have continued to show strong support for the students and other activists on campus.

Comments by Omar, for example, referring to some Jewish students as ‘pro-genocide,’ have earned her a GOP-led censure resolution, filed by Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., on Tuesday. She made the remarks during a recent visit to Columbia University’s anti-Israel encampment.

A watchdog group is sounding the alarm, saying Gazans are reporting that employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) are allegedly stealing and selling off humanitarian aid materials. 

UN Watch, a non-governmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, on Wednesday cited numerous reports published by Palestinians in an UNRWA-related chatroom claiming that UNRWA staff are stealing aid and selling it for profit, while those who report it face reprisals. Israeli and some U.S. officials have accused UNRWA of masquerading as a relief organization while supporting Hamas’ attacks on Israel. 

Amid the ‘rampant theft,’ the watchdog further claimed that UNRWA Commissioner-General Philipe Lazzarini ‘turns a blind eye’ to serious problems within the management of aid distribution by the agency. Lazzarini, meanwhile, recently called for countries to increase direct cash assistance to Gazans because, although ‘there is more food available… it still does not mean that the food is accessible.’

The chatroom – which the watchdog group notes is also riddled with antisemitic slurs and posts celebrating Iran’s attack on Israel – is run by a former UNRWA employee, Haitham al-Sayyed, according to UN Watch. The watchdog group noted that Al-Sayyed was removed from UNRWA in 2016 after he publicly called out the agency for hiding an UNRWA map that denied the existence of Israel while U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was holding a press conference at a school funded by the agency. 

‘While Haitham al-Sayyed was supposedly fired from UNRWA, he is still considered by many in the chat rooms as an important figure in the organization who holds sway with the senior administration,’ UN Watch said. The watchdog group said some UNRWA staff, ‘frustrated by inaction and even complicity of senior staff in these thefts,’ have confided in al-Sayyed ‘in the hope that he can get UNRWA’s top officials to listen.’

On Jan. 6, al-Sayyed posted a message sent to him by a UNRWA employee working in an emergency shelter set up at a school in Gaza, complaining in Arabic that ‘the displaced people in the external shelter do not get their right to food and non-food aid, but rather it is distributed at night and sold in front of our eyes.’ The employee said about 150 bags of diapers were distributed at night to those inside the school. 

The employee also said the school remained without electricity for over a month after someone stole diesel fuel from the shelter, but later ‘the thief was exposed, and the principal was informed, but to this day he is still working with us.’ The message also said a ‘young engineer with great morals’ had previously been in charge of the school, but when he prevented ‘night administration’ from stealing from the store after dark, ‘he was arbitrarily transferred on charges of embezzlement.’ 

The UNRWA worker reported that a female teacher put in charge of the morning administration ‘did not take any steps to stop these crimes until we became suspicious that she is complicit with them, and unfortunately, this evening, [the] manager had a hand and support in the operations, so it was very easy for him to transfer whoever he wants on charges of embezzlement.’ 

According to a screenshot of a Telegram message published by UN Watch, a member of the chatroom group, Dr. Izzat Shatat, wrote that a ‘director of a school warehouse came now with 50 cartons of food that were distributed in UNRWA schools and sold them to a merchant for 350 shekels per carton, equivalent to $100.’ 

‘How did he take out this amount of cartons? Where is the administration about this?’ Shatat asked.

Another UNRWA employee, Mohammed Musa al-Sawalhi, recounted in the chatroom on Feb. 20 how he witnessed some UNRWA employees stealing aid and heard that others were hoarding aid in their houses. He claimed, ‘80% of employees in the shelters have no morals or dignity,’ and said family members of one director were caught on video stealing aid. 

‘When will the directors of UNRWA centers in schools, especially Rafah Preparatory Girls School B, stop stealing the food and needs of the displaced?’ another group member wrote on March 1. 

UN Watch detailed how, on March 22, ‘a heated debate erupted in the chatroom where some UNRWA employees accused other employees of not giving them access to a medicine cabinet.’ 

One member commented, ‘From the past wars, I knew some employees personally, and I trusted them to be good people, but the soul is evil. Some of them were stealing on a daily basis as if it were a prize. This war revealed a lot and some of it was documented with photos, videos, and audio.’

A spokesperson for UNRWA told Fox News Digital, ‘We saw this report and are looking at what are very serious claims. We will provide an update when and if we have more information.’ 

Republican senators on Capitol Hill accused President Biden on Thursday of favoring a ‘Hamas victory over Israel’ and being a ‘propaganda tool’ for the Palestinian terrorist group after he vowed to withhold weapons from Israel if it follows through with an invasion of Rafah. 

Biden, during an interview with CNN released Wednesday, said ‘Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs’ and that he has made clear to Israel ‘if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem.’ 

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Thursday during a news conference that ‘Hamas’ leaders and its last four battalions are holed up in Rafah’ and that ‘Israel has to defeat Hamas in Rafah to win.’ 

‘Hamas wins if it survives in Rafah. And Joe Biden has threatened to withhold weapons from Israel for fighting in Rafah,’ Cotton continued. ‘Therefore, Joe Biden objectively favors a Hamas victory over Israel. It’s just that simple. 

‘The president is only emboldening Hamas,’ Cotton continued. ‘Why would Hamas release hostages when Joe Biden will give Hamas exactly what it wants: survival without releasing hostages?’ 

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, called Biden a ‘tool’ for his comments. 

‘He is a tool. In this case, he’s a propaganda tool. But Hamas is using him and he is allowing it and he is turning his back on Israel,’ she said. 

Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, also described the unfolding situation as ‘not helpful to the national security of the United States.’ 

‘Congress passed funding, the administration allowed these weapons sales. Myself and the other three members of Congress who closely look at these sales and take that obligation seriously, all signed off on it,’ he said. ‘And now in the heat of battle, this administration is saying we’re going to pull this back. This is unprecedented. It’s going to be watched by our enemies. It’s going to be watched by our allies.’ 

The news conference was organized by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who wrote on X that he wanted to discuss ‘a resolution that condemns any action by the Biden administration to withhold or restrict weapons for Israel.’ 

The White House did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

‘This is all about President Biden and [Secretary of Defense] Lloyd Austin trying to take over the war from Israel,’ Graham said Thursday. ‘I got one message for Israel: Don’t let them do it.’