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President Donald Trump is expected to withdraw all American funding from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the agency supplying aid to Gaza.
The executive order is likely to be signed on Wednesday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with the president in Washington.
“The UNHRC has demonstrated consistent bias against Israel, focusing on it unfairly and disproportionately in council proceedings,” a White House fact sheet shared with Politico said. “In 2018, the year President Trump withdrew from the UNHRC in his first administration, the organization passed more resolutions condemning Israel than Syria, Iran, and North Korea combined.”
The order will also instruct Secretary of State Marco Rubio to assess international organizations, conventions and treaties that “promote radical or anti-American sentiment” and report his findings to the White House.
Trump is expected to either shut down or significantly overhaul the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as well, which provides billions in humanitarian aid worldwide.
On Monday, Rubio was appointed the acting director of USAID as an interim step in major changes to the agency.
“As an interim step toward gaining control and better understanding over the agency’s activity, President Donald J. Trump appointed Secretary Marco Rubio as Acting Administrator,” the State Department said in a press release on Monday.
“Secretary Rubio has also now notified Congress that a review of USAID’s foreign assistance activities is underway with an eye towards potential reorganization,” it added.
Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu on Wednesday also comes as Israeli hostages have started being released from Hamas in Gaza as Trump returned to the White House last week.
Trump celebrated the release of the first three female hostages the day before his inauguration in a Truth Social post.
“Hostages starting to come out today! Three wonderful young women will be first,” he wrote.
Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher reunited with their families after being abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, and held for 471 days.
“The three women were the first of the 33 captives expected to be freed during the first phase of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas that went into effect earlier in the day,” JNS reported. “The women were handed over to the Israel Defense Forces by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross inside the Gaza Strip.”
