Democratic Senator from Maryland, Chris Van Hollen, said that allegations that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) cooperated with Hamas are a "pure lie."

Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," the Democratic senator said the demonization of UNRWA in connection with the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel was an attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to get rid of the agency, once and for all.

“There is no doubt that the claim being made by Prime Minister Netanyahu and others, that UNRWA is in some way a proxy for Hamas, is just outright lies,” Van Hollen told host Margaret Brennan. “This is an outright lie. If you look at the person in charge of operations on the ground in Gaza for UNRWA, you will find that he is a former US Army soldier who spent 20 years in the army. You can be sure that he is not in collusion with Hamas. Netanyahu has wanted to get rid of UNRWA since 2017 at least".

Some Republicans on Capitol Hill, including Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), have called for defunding the agency. But Van Hollen said UNRWA's work remains essential at a time when many Gazans are experiencing severe hardship due to the ongoing war.

He also said that if there were specific members of UNRWA who cooperated with Hamas, they should be held accountable.

“There have been allegations by the Netanyahu government that as many as 14 of these 13,000 people were involved in the horrific October 7 attacks,” Van Hollen said. He added: "We must investigate the matter, and we must hold all these people accountable. But for goodness sake, let us not hold accountable two million innocent Palestinian civilians who are starving to death, and let us not hold them accountable, fundamentally, for the bad actions committed by 14 people."