Sen. Blackburn calls for investigation into allegation UN agency employee detained Israeli hostage

Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn pictured at a hearing on Capitol Hill. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., demanded an investigation into allegations that a controversial United Nations agency's employee detained one of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. 

"The United States will not be complicit in propping up Hamas' terrorism, and this report further proves why deep change is necessary within UNRWA before we even consider providing another dollar to the agency," Blackburn wrote in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital and addressed to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield and United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. 

"It is deeply concerning that, despite the prevalence of these reports, the United Nations has seemingly done nothing to investigate or prevent the siphoning of UNRWA funding by terrorists, and UNRWA continues to double down on its claims that each subsequent, documented report is ‘unsubstantiated.’"

Blackburn has requested a response by Dec. 18 that addresses a report from Israeli reporter Almog Boker about a UNRWA employee who allegedly detained a hostage in their house for 50 days and details of any investigation into the report, as well as an explanation of UNRWA's "process for ensuring its facilities are not used to support terrorist activities," among other points. 

Boker, a journalist with Israeli Channel 13, last week claimed on social media platform X that he had interviewed a recently released hostage who told him a UNRWA teacher held them hostage. He additionally claimed a Gazan doctor – allegedly a pediatrician – helped hold another hostage captive for Hamas.