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New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani spent Sunday evening raising money for the UN organization that hired the terrorists on Oct. 7, just hours before the last living Israeli hostages were freed from Hamas captivity.
Mamdani participated in the Gaza 5K race in New York to raise funds for UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The organization was found to have used terrorists in the Gaza Strip who participated in the October 7 massacre in Israel. Mamdani's campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
“This morning I ran the NYC Gaza 5K for the third time in Prospect Park with the Harlem Running Club to raise money for UNRWA USA, which provides critical humanitarian aid and services to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” Mamdani wrote on social media.
“I hope you will join me in making a donation,” he added.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani raised money for UNRWA at the New York Gaza 5K in the city on Sunday, October 12. (X/@ZohranKMamdani)
Mamdani included a donation link where his followers could send money to UNRWA.
In August, the State Department delivered a scathing report on UNRWA to Congress, determining that the agency must be abolished and cannot be reformed. UNRWA's stated purpose is to provide assistance to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but the report claims the organization is “irreparably compromised”
According to a State Department document, the Trump administration in March 2025 required UNRWA to “return all remaining unspent balances of U.S. funding in its accounts.” UNRWA's Washington office said it would do so “but has not yet completed the operation.” In May, the State Department said it was working to “end U.S. participation in all working-level UNRWA bodies” at the UN.
Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks to supporters at a campaign event in Prospect Park on Sunday, August 17, 2025. (Deirdre Heavey/Fox News Digital)
The US government stopped funding UNRWA in January 2024 and has not renewed assistance to the agency. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's decision calling for the complete dissolution of UNRWA has added a new level of pressure on the UN and key UNRWA donor countries such as Japan and Germany to reassess UNRWA's viability.
The Biden administration has given UNRWA is a $1 billion US taxpayer funding from 2021 until the moratorium takes effect in 2024.
Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated in February 2024 that dozens of people employed by UNRWA were directly involved in atrocities committed against Israeli civilians October 7, 2023
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, told the UN in January that UNRWA should cease its activities in Jerusalem.
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In August 2024, Fox News Digital reported. UN fires nine staff from UNRWA, which was likely involved in the Hamas killing of 1,200 people, including more than 30 Americans, on October 7 in southern Israel.
Fox News' Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.
