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The United Nations aid agency has dismissed several of its workers accused of being involved in the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7. An Israeli document obtained by the US news agency Associated Press on Monday details the charges against 12 United Nations employees who, according to authorities in Israel, took part in the October 7 Hamas attack. The document claims that seven of them entered Israeli territory, including two employees who participated in kidnappings and two others in attacks on Israeli settlements.
According to Israeli authorities, the document, which was shared with US officials, contains information on the 12 UN staff, their role in the attack, their role as UN staff and photographs.
The document states that according to information gathered by intelligence services, at least 190 employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) are operatives of Hamas or the Islamic Jihad group, without providing evidence of this.
According to the document, among the 12 employees identified are nine teachers and one social worker. One is accused of having armed himself with anti-tank shells the night before the attack, while another had taken photographs of one of the hostages. Some are accused of "participating in terrorist activity" or coordinating the movement of trucks or weapons that were used to carry out the attack. Ten are accused of having ties to Hamas and one to Islamic Jihad.
Two of the 12 identified were killed, according to the document. According to the UN, one of them is still in the process of identification.
The allegations have heightened already high tensions between Israel and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees. Israel says Hamas uses the organization's facilities to store weapons or carry out attacks. The UN aid agency for Palestinians says it does not knowingly tolerate such behavior and that it has internal measures in place to prevent abuse and that it takes action against employees who break the rules.
The accusations against employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, known by its acronym UNWRA, prompted Western countries to freeze funding for the organization, which is crucial to the needy Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The UN dismissed nine of the 12 accused employees and condemned their "suspected actions".
Despite the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, where officials say Israel's war has displaced most of the population, major donors, including the United States and Britain, have suspended funding. On Monday, they were joined by Japan and Austria.
With most of its budget suspended, UNRWA announced that it will be forced to cease operations within weeks.
The UN reacted by saying that the entire agency should not be punished for the actions of some of its employees, whom it says it will hold accountable if the allegations against them are proven. The organization has called on donors to continue funding the aid agency.
The United States is the largest donor of aid to the Palestinians. Along with several other countries, the United States funded about 60% of UNRWA's budget in 2022.
UNRWA provides basic services to Palestinian families who fled or were expelled from the territory that Israel took control of during the 1948 war. Refugees and their descendants make up the majority of the population in the Gaza Strip.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, most of Gaza's 2.3 million residents depend on the agency's programs "just to survive," including food and shelter needs, UN officials say.
A quarter of Gaza's population is starving while fighting and Israeli restrictions are preventing aid from entering.
Meanwhile, Israel announced that there was progress in Sunday's ceasefire talks, but that there are still "significant differences" between the parties. The aim of the talks is to offer Gaza some respite from fighting and more humanitarian aid, and secure the release of more than 100 hostages still being held by Hamas. / VOA
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