SEVERAL EMPLOYEES from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees have been fired after being accused by Israel of involvement in Hamas’s 7 October attack.
In a statement today, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) commissioner-general said Israel had provided the agency with information about the alleged involvement of several employees in the attack.
“To protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay,” Philippe Lazzarini said.
He voted to hold “accountable, including through criminal prosecution,” any UNRWA found to be involved in the “acts of terror”.
In response to the firings, UN chief Antonio Guterres pledged to conduct an “urgent and comprehensive independent review of UNRWA”, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The US State Department said it had “temporarily paused additional funding” for UNRWA while it “reviews these allegations and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them”.
“The United States is extremely troubled by the allegations that 12 UNRWA employees may have been involved in the 7 October Hamas terrorist attack in Israel,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Miller noted that the agency “plays a critical role in providing lifesaving assistance to Palestinians, including essential food, medicine, shelter and other vital humanitarian support”.
“Their work has saved lives, and it is important that UNRWA address these allegations and take any appropriate corrective measures, including reviewing existing policies and prosedures,” he said.
The US has contacted the Government of Israel to seek further information about the allegations and members of Congress have been briefed on the matter.
Israel’s foreign ministry said today it was “expecting an urgent investigation” of the agency on the involvement of its employees in the attack.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said the sackings proved long-standing claims that “UNRWA employees are collaborators of the terrorist organisation Hamas”.
Relations between Israel and UNRWA have deteriorated further in recent days, after the UN agency said tank shelling hit a shelter for displaced people in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis.
The agency said tens of thousands of displaced people had been registered at the shelter and tank shelling on Wednesday killed 13 people.
Asked about the incident, the Israeli army said “a thorough review of the operations of the forces in the vicinity is underway”, adding it was examining the possibility that the strike was a “result of Hamas fire”.
Lazzarini slammed Wednesday’s bombardment as a “blatant disregard of basic rules of war”, with the compound clearly marked as a UN facility and its coordinates shared with Israeli authorities.
The Israeli army is the only force known to have tanks operating in the Gaza Strip.
An UNRWA spokeswoman confirmed testimony from displaced people in the shelter who said the army gave them until 5pm (3pm Irish time) today to flee.
AFP reported it was not able to confirm the situation today at the shelter.
The unprecedented October 7 Hamas attack resulted in the death of around 1,140 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 of them remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives.
At least 26,083 Palestinians, around 70% of them women, young children and adolescents, have been killed in the Gaza Strip in Israeli bombardments and ground offensive since then, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Additional reporting by - © AFP 2024
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