UN investigates UNRWA staff involvement in October 7 Hamas attack

Palestinian children who fled with their parents from their houses in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh, gather in the backyard of an UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) school, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, September 12, 2023. Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Nine employees of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) "may have been involved" in the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, according to the UN's internal investigation. This involved 19 people accused by Israel.

At the end of January, the Israeli authorities first accused 12 UNRWA employees of involvement in the October 7 attack carried out by the Palestinian Islamist group, triggering a storm against the agency, the backbone of humanitarian aid in Gaza. Seven other names were subsequently added to the list.

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The accusations prompted major donors to suspend funding for the agency, which has more than 30,000 employees serving 5.9 million Palestinians in the region, including 13,000 in Gaza. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres immediately called for an investigation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).

For one person, “no evidence was obtained by the OIOS to substantiate the charges” and in nine other cases, the evidence “was insufficient to substantiate the involvement of the employees,” Antonio Guterres’ deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq, said on Monday. “With regard to the nine other cases, the evidence obtained by the OIOS indicates that UNRWA employees may have been involved in the armed attacks of October 7,” he added, assuring that these individuals would be dismissed.

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“They cannot work for UNRWA,” insisted the head of the agency, Philippe Lazzarini, in a press release. The agency’s staff must “respect” the UN’s principles “inside and outside,” he added, emphasising the principle of “humanitarian neutrality.”

An international spokesman for the Israeli army, Nadav Shoshani, reacted on Monday evening on X, saying that the agency had reached “a new low” with the announcement of the investigation’s conclusions. “It is time for the world to see your true face,” he added.

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Stressing that the investigations of the UN’s internal services are confidential, Farhan Haq said that he had no further information on the content of the accusations and evidence. “But we have enough information to take the action we are taking, i.e., the dismissal of these nine individuals,” he said. “Beyond that, we will have to assess what further steps are necessary to fully corroborate and evaluate the information.”

The investigators travelled to Israel to examine Israeli information and to Amman in Jordan to obtain information from UNRWA. “But as the information used by the Israeli authorities to support their accusations remained in Israeli hands, the OIOS was unable to independently authenticate most of the information,” insisted Farhan Haq.

For security reasons, the UN investigators also did not meet the accused employees or potential witnesses, but they did receive recorded video statements from some of those concerned, the UN said.

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The attack on Israel on October 7 by Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007, resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped at the time, 111 are still being held in Gaza, 39 of them dead, according to the army.

In response, Israel launched an offensive that has caused a humanitarian disaster and has so far claimed 39,623 lives, according to data from the Ministry of Health of the Hamas-led Gaza government, which does not give details of the number of dead civilians and combatants.

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Following accusations against UNRWA that prompted major donors to suspend their financial contributions, Antonio Guterres appointed an independent committee to assess the agency’s “neutrality.” In April, the committee, chaired by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, concluded that UNRWA had “persistent problems of neutrality” and made recommendations to improve the operation of this “irreplaceable” agency for aid to the Palestinians.

Several donors have since announced the resumption of their funding. Last December, Switzerland suspended the CHF20 million ($23 million) earmarked for the agency before deciding to release it twice a year.

Translated from German by DeepL/amva

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