The allegations are serious: employees of the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA are said to have taken part in the massacre on October 7th. Details of the allegations have now become known for the first time.
The New York Times has published previously unknown details about the alleged involvement of employees of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees in the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7th.
A UNRWA employee was involved in the kidnapping of a woman from Israel, another was distributing ammunition, and a third was involved in a massacre on a kibbutz in which 97 people died, the newspaper reported, citing a relevant Israeli dossier. that is available to the US government.
The accused are said to have belonged to Hamas
In total, the dossier contains allegations against twelve UNRWA employees. More than half of them were working as teachers or in other functions at UN aid agency schools on October 7th. Of the twelve accused, ten are members of the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas.
The employees are accused of having helped Hamas in the attacks on October 7th or of supporting them in the days afterwards. There is currently no confirmation of the allegations by the US government, wrote the New York Times. But Washington considers them credible.
Dossier based on Intelligence information
According to the dossier reviewed by the New York Times, the allegations are based on information from Israeli intelligence. Among other things, he traced the movements of six UNRWA employees within Israel on October 7th using their phones. Others had telephone conversations monitored in which they discussed their involvement in the Hamas attack. One person was asked by text message to bring rocket-propelled grenades that had been stored in his house.
Israel cancels meeting with UNRWA
Meanwhile, Israel canceled a planned meeting with the head of the UN Palestinian Relief Agency, Philippe Lazzarini, at short notice. “I have just canceled the meeting of ministry employees with Lazzarini on Wednesday in Israel,” wrote Foreign Minister Israel Katz on the online platform X, formerly Twitter. According to Katz, the reason is the allegations against the UNRWA employees. “Lazzarini should draw conclusions and resign. Supporters of terrorism are not welcome here,” Katz added on X.
Payments to aid organizations stopped
The serious allegations against twelve of several thousand UNRWA employees caused outrage worldwide. After Israel provided the aid organization with relevant information, numerous Western states temporarily stopped their payments to the aid organization, including the USA, Germany, Great Britain and France. According to its own information, the federal government supported the UN relief organization with more than 200 million euros last year alone.
EU insists on reviews
The EU demands comprehensive testing rights and does not rule out consequences. The EU Commission announced in Brussels that it is expected that UNRWA will agree to a review by independent experts appointed by the EU. Upcoming funding decisions for UNRWA will be made against the background of the very serious allegations.
Meanwhile, UNRWA warned that aid in the Gaza Strip and the entire region would have to stop at the end of February if countries did not resume payments.
The UNWRA, which was rocked by a nepotism scandal in 2019, is already suffering from a chronic lack of money: Even before the start of the war between Israel and the militant Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, UNRWA officials criticized the underfunding of the aid organization, which depends on voluntary donations.
More than 150 UNRWA staff killed
More than two million people in the Gaza Strip rely on UNRWA aid. UNRWA employed about 13,000 staff in the Gaza Strip before the war began on October 7, most of them Palestinians. So far, more than 150 UNRWA staff have died in the conflict. Never before has the United Nations lost so many aid workers in a war. Many UNRWA facilities were damaged or destroyed.
UNRWA operates not only in the Gaza Strip, but also in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. It operates more than 700 educational institutions with almost 550,000 students. The plant also operates medical facilities, helps set up small businesses and even regulates garbage collection.
Antje Passenheim, ARD New York, tagesschau, January 29, 2024 2:47 p.m