NYC mayoral candidate raises funds for UNRWA before hostages released

New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani spent Sunday night raising money for a United Nations organization that employed Oct. 7 terrorists, just hours before the final living Israeli hostages were released from Hamas captivity.

Mamdani ran in the NYC Gaza 5K, a fundraiser for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The organization was infamously found to have employed terrorists in Gaza who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel. Mamdani’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

“This morning I ran the NYC Gaza 5K in Prospect Park for the third time, alongside the Harlem Run Club, to raise money for UNRWA USA, which delivers critical humanitarian aid and services to Palestinians in Gaza,” Mamdani wrote on social media.

“I hope you’ll join me in donating,” he added.

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Mamdani included a donation link for his followers to send money to UNRWA.

The State Department issued a devastating report to Congress on UNRWA in August, determining that the agency needs to be abolished and is beyond reform. UNRWA’s stated goal is to provide aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but the report argues the organization “is irredeemably compromised”

According to the State Department document, the Trump administration demanded in March 2025 that UNRWA “return all remaining unspent balances of U.S. funding in its accounts.” The UNRWA Washington office said it would do so, “but has not yet completed the action.” In May, the State Department said it is working “to cease U.S. participation in all working-level UNRWA bodies” at the United Nations.

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The U.S. government pulled the plug on UNRWA funding in January 2024 and has not resumed aid to the agency. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s move calling for the wholesale dissolution of UNRWA added a new layer of pressure on the U.N. and key donor nations to UNRWA, such as Japan and Germany, to reassess the viability of UNRWA.

The Biden administration had given UNRWA $1 billion in U.S. taxpayer funding since 2021 before the freeze in 2024 went into effect.

Former Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said in February 2024 that dozens of individuals employed by UNRWA were directly involved in the atrocities carried out against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon told the U.N. in January that UNRWA must close its operations in Jerusalem.

In August 2024, Fox News Digital reported the U.N. fired nine employees from UNRWA who likely participated in the Hamas slaughter of 1,200 people, including more than 30 Americans, on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.

Fox News’ Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.