Employees of the UN Palestinian Relief Agency are said to have been involved in the Hamas attack on Israel. This news caused horror and funding cuts. Now the scandal seems to be expanding even further.
According to a media report, the extent of the alleged connection between employees of the UN Palestinian Relief Agency (UNRWA) and terrorists in the Gaza Strip is greater than previously assumed.
As previously known, twelve of them are said to have taken part in the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on October 7th. In total, around ten percent of the approximately 12,000 employees of the UNRWA aid organization employed in the Gaza Strip have connections to Hamas or the Islamist Jihad, reported the US newspaper “Wall Street Journal”, citing intelligence reports.
The information was based, among other things, on cell phone data, interrogations of captured Hamas fighters and documents seized from killed fighters, the newspaper reports. It was said that the US government had been informed about the intelligence dossier.
The allegations against the employees for their alleged involvement in the Hamas massacre caused outrage around the world. In response, numerous countries temporarily stopped their payments to the aid organization, including Germany, the USA, Great Britain and France.
Guterres meets donor countries
According to the UN, UN Secretary-General António Guterres wants to meet with representatives of donor countries in New York today. He advocates for further funding for the organization. His spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the UN Secretary-General was “personally appalled” by the allegations. “But his message to donors – particularly those who have paused their contributions – is to at least ensure the continuity of UNRWA’s work.” The UN relief agency has “tens of thousands of committed employees” in the region.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken again called for the allegations to be clarified quickly. The UN relief agency plays an “absolutely indispensable role in ensuring that the men, women and children who so desperately need help in Gaza actually receive it,” Blinken said.
Israel for reform of the aid agency
Israel called for comprehensive reform of the Palestinian relief agency. “UNRWA’s problem is not just ‘a few bad apples’ involved in the October 7 massacre,” the Wall Street Journal quoted a senior Israeli government official as saying. “The institution as a whole is a haven for Hamas’ radical ideology,” the official said.
“UNRWA has been in cahoots with the terrorists for a long time,” said Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, to the “Tagesspiegel”. The attackers of the Munich Olympic massacre in 1972 were already graduates of UNRWA schools. He welcomed the fact that financial resources were now being withheld “on a large scale”. But that could only be the beginning. “The way UNRWA is now, it cannot contribute to peace,” said Prosor.