UN investigation: Nine UNRWA staff members may be involved in Hamas attack on Israel
A UN investigation reveals that nine staff members from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) "may" have been involved in the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel and do not work for the agency, writes CNN.
The investigation began in January after Israel accused several UNRWA employees of participating in the attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel. UN investigators have not been able to talk to the accused.
Nine of those involved were dismissed in January when Israel laid the charges. Others were dismissed after new claims were made this spring, said Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in the Near East.
The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) investigated a total of 19 staff who were accused by Israel of participating in the attack.
"Evidence obtained by OIOS indicated that UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the armed attacks on 7 October 2023," OIOS said in a statement. In another nine cases, the OIOS said the evidence was "insufficient" for employees to be dismissed, but that "appropriate action will be taken in due course".
In the final case, "OIOS did not obtain any evidence to support the allegations regarding the staff member's involvement." An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman, Nadav Shoshani, said in a message on the X network that “nine of your employees may have participated in the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said his agency's "priority is to continue vital and essential services for Palestinian refugees in Gaza and across the region, particularly in the face of ongoing war, instability and the risk of regional escalation" .
The Israeli government has not released any evidence to support the allegations against the UN agency's employees. However, UNRWA said in January that it had terminated the contracts of the accused employees. The allegations have prompted several of UNRWA's top donor countries to withdraw funding for the agency. Most of the states have since restored their funding. The US, historically UNRWA's largest donor, has not.
