UN aid agency probes staff suspected of role in Israel attacks

The UN aid agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) said on Friday it had opened an investigation into several employees suspected of involvement in the October 7 attacks in Israel by Hamas and that it had severed ties with these staff members.

“The Israeli authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on October 7,” said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General.

“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 to establish the truth without delay.”

UNRWA, established in 1949 after the first Arab-Israeli war, provides services including schooling, primary healthcare and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

UNRWA has provided aid and used its facilities to shelter people fleeing bombardment and a ground offensive launched by Israel in Gaza after the October attacks, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 253 people taken hostage.

“These shocking allegations come as more than 2-million people in Gaza depend on lifesaving assistance that the agency has been providing since the war began,” Lazzarini said.

Israel's offensive has laid waste to much of the densely populated Gaza Strip.

UNRWA, whose biggest donors in 2022 were the US, Germany, the EU and Sweden, has repeatedly said its capacity to render humanitarian assistance to people in Gaza is on the verge of collapse.

Reuters