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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Hani Almadhoun says that for months he felt guilty after the war began between Hamas and Israel in early October.

He was living safely in the Washington, D.C., area, while his family in Bait Lahia, in northern Gaza, was being bombed.



“I felt hopeless and didn’t see a reason to wake up in the mornings,” says the 42-year-old father of two daughters. He says he was struggling looking at images of his neighborhood being bombed and his family starving. He is a Palestinian who came to the United States in 2000 on a college scholarship and is now a U.

S. citizen. Almadhoun is a professional fundraiser.

He’s the director of philanthropy at UNRWA USA , an American nonprofit that raises private sector funds and supports the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees , commonly known as UNRWA. The UN’s charity was created in 1949 to provide relief to Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. After the current conflict began, Israel accused UNRWA of having Hamas supporters in its ranks.

Last January the Biden administration “paused” U.S. funding to the U.

N. organization, “citing allegations that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the October 7, 2023, attacks led by Hamas (a U.S.

- designated foreign terrorist organization) against Israel,” according to the Congressional Research Service, a U.S. Congress public policy research institute.

However, in February the UN's secretary general, in consultation with UNR.

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