In a major reversal, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is not entitled to immunity from lawsuits in the United States. The move clears a significant legal hurdle for families of over 100 victims of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led massacre, who are seeking $1 billion in damages.

The lawsuit, filed in June in the Southern District of New York, accuses UNRWA of aiding Hamas by allowing its facilities to be used for weapons storage, tunnel construction, command centers, and the funneling of funds to the terror group via employee payments in U.S. dollars. The plaintiffs argue that UNRWA’s actions directly facilitated Hamas’s bloody assault.

Until now, the Biden administration had defended UNRWA’s immunity, arguing in a September filing that the agency, as part of the United Nations, could not be sued in U.S. courts. But in Thursday’s letter to the court, the DOJ reversed its stance, asserting that UNRWA does not qualify as a “subsidiary organ” of the UN under the International Organizations Immunities Act.

The DOJ clarified that while the UN’s principal organs enjoy immunity under U.S. law, its specialized agencies and affiliates—such as UNRWA—do not. As an “affiliate or instrumentality” of the UN, UNRWA is now exposed to legal action in American courts.

This dramatic shift by the Department of Justice signals a significant policy change, and removes a major barrier that had previously blocked the families’ lawsuit from advancing. It also places new scrutiny on UNRWA, an organization already under fire for its alleged ties to Hamas and other terror activities.

Established in 1949, UNRWA coordinates aid, healthcare, and education for approximately 5.9 million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. However, after multiple revelations of UNRWA employees’ direct involvement in terrorism and the use of its facilities by Hamas, Israel’s Knesset overwhelmingly voted to ban UNRWA’s operations within its borders last November.

As legal proceedings move forward, the question now shifts to how much responsibility UNRWA will ultimately bear for its alleged role in enabling one of the deadliest terror attacks against Israel in modern history.