An internal investigation determined the employees ‘may have been involved’ in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assault that set off the war.
By Karen DeYoung
August 5, 2024
The United Nations has officially closed its internal investigation of Israeli allegations that staff members of UNRWA, the main U.N. relief agency in Gaza, participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion of southern Israel after determining that nine of 19 accused “may have been involved” in the attack. The nine have been fired, according to U.N. statements.
Investigators determined there was “insufficient” evidence to support Israel’s charges against another nine of the accused, and “no evidence” against one, a spokesman for Secretary General António Guterres said Monday.
The Israeli allegations, initially made in January, led more than a dozen countries to suspend support donations to UNRWA. All except the United States, which in the past has supplied at least a third of all UNRWA funding, have since resumed their support. After the Biden administration paused U.S. funding, Congress voted to eliminate all donations to the agency until at least March 2025.
The report by the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services remains confidential, although member states can ask to see it. Asked Monday about the U.N. statements on its conclusions, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said he would have no comment until the administration has a “chance to review” the document.
Middle East conflict
Israel is sending a delegation to resume negotiations after weeks of deadlock over a cease-fire deal in Gaza, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed, as a senior U.S. administration official hailed “a breakthrough on a critical impasse.”
Israel has long accused UNRWA, and the United Nations in general, of being biased. Since the October attack, which sparked the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, senior Israeli officials have used numbers ranging from dozens to thousands in charging that UNRWA is an instrument of Hamas.
For its part, UNRWA has charged that Israel has long sought to eliminate the agency, whose official mission is to care for Palestinian “refugees.” Israel claims that Palestinians forced to leave their homes at the creation of the Israeli state in 1948 and in subsequent territorial wars — totaling, with their descendants, almost 6 million — should not be classified as refugees.
In addition to Gaza, UNRWA also provides education, health care and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Of its 30,000 employees, 13,000 work in Gaza. More than 200 have been killed in ongoing Israeli attacks, according to the United Nations.
“The U.N. is incapable of running a state-like enterprise in Gaza without being infiltrated by terrorist organizations,” the Israeli government said in a statement last week. “UNRWA in Gaza can and should be replaced, without hampering the humanitarian assistance … Donor countries that continue to fund UNRWA are indirectly funding Hamas.”
Amid an escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, UNRWA and other international aid agencies have accused Israel of blocking assistance to more than 2 million Gazans, most of whom have relocated numerous times inside the enclave to try to avoid Israeli fighting. Israel has countered by calling UNRWA “incompetent” and accusing Hamas of looting aid convoys. The United States, along with the aid agencies, have rejected those charges and called on Israel to allow more assistance to enter Gaza.
The OIOS report appeared to have added fuel to the long-standing war of both actions and words between Israel and the United Nations. In a statement Monday, Israel’s ambassador, Gilad Erdan, called the investigation “a disgrace.” According to Israeli media, he said the document “ignored the thousands of agency employees involved in Hamas terrorism.”
Calling for UNRWA to be shut down, Erdan said that Israel “gave the U.N. the precise details on over 100 UNRWA employees who are members of Hamas.”
In his own statement on the report, UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said that only 19 cases were ever brought to U.N. attention by Israel. He has previously charged Israel with an “insidious” campaign to destroy UNWRA and has repeatedly said that Israel refused to supply evidence of its charges.
Calling for UNRWA to be shut down, Erdan said that Israel “gave the U.N. the precise details on over 100 UNRWA employees who are members of Hamas.”
In his own statement on the report, UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said that only 19 cases were ever brought to U.N. attention by Israel. He has previously charged Israel with an “insidious” campaign to destroy UNWRA and has repeatedly said that Israel refused to supply evidence of its charges.
The OIOS investigation, Lazzarini said, found that “in one case, no evidence was obtained by OIOS to support the allegations of the staff member’s involvement. That staff member has rejoined the Agency.
“In nine other cases, the evidence obtained by OIOS was insufficient to support the staff members’ involvement and the OIOS investigation of them is now closed.”
“For the remaining nine cases, the evidence — if authenticated and corroborated — could indicate that the UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the attacks of 7 October. I have decided in the case of the remaining nine staff members, they cannot work for UNRWA. All contracts of these staff members will be terminated in the interest of the Agency.”
In a briefing at the United Nations, Guterres spokesman Farhan Haq said that as part of its investigation, OIOS investigators held discussions with Israeli officials, examined UNRWA documents and records, reviewed technical information, communications data and public sources.
“However,” Haq said, “one thing I’d like to point out is that since information used by Israeli officials to support the allegations have remained in Israeli custody, OIOS was not able to independently authenticate most of the information provided to it.”
Asked about the U.N. public wording that the nine “may have been involved” in the Hamas attack, Haq indicated that his hands were tied in offering more information because of the confidential nature of the finding. “That is my words as summarizing the investigation’s words. But it is the words I’ve been given to tell you which have been very precisely written for me.”
The nine were terminated, he said, because “we have sufficient information in order to take the actions that we’re taking … Beyond that, we will need to evaluate what further steps are needed in order to fully corroborate and evaluate the situation.”
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