The investigation is open, Washington is “concerned”… What we know about the involvement of UNRWA members in Hamas attacks

The case risks causing a stir. Members of UNRWA, the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, are suspected of involvement in the deadly October 7 attacks carried out by Hamas on Israeli soil. Le Parisien sums it up.

What is Unra?

Unrwa, in French the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, is a UN agency that has been helping Palestine refugees since 1949, providing them with access, among others, to education, emergency first aid… Its members are particularly present in the Sector Gaza, from where Hamas terrorists left on October 7 to commit massacres.

The agency, funded almost entirely by voluntary donations from UN member states, has been helping Gazans escape the intense bombing campaign carried out by the Israeli army since October, which has not spared civilians. According to the organization’s director Philippe Lazzarini, two million people in the Gaza Strip depend on its assistance.

The IDF offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed about 26,000 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Health Ministry.

Agency officials recently complained that they came under Israeli fire in the Palestinian enclave.

UNRWA has been regularly singled out by Israel in the past; Tel Aviv accuses him, among other things, of inciting anti-Israel hatred, charges which UNRWA denies.

What is she accused of?

This time, Israeli authorities accuse several UNRWA employees of involvement in Hamas raids that killed about 1,200 people, including scores of civilians in villages in southern Israel and at the site of an open-air music festival. The extent of their alleged involvement is currently unknown.

“To protect the Agency’s ability to provide humanitarian assistance, I have decided to immediately terminate the contracts of these employees and immediately begin an investigation to determine the truth,” Philippe Lazzarini said in a press release, without specifying how many agents were concerned. According to the US, 12 employees are being investigated.

“Any Unrwa employee involved in terrorist acts will be held accountable, in particular through criminal prosecution,” added Philippe Lazzarini.

“UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is horrified by this news,” said his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Washington is concerned

“The (U.S.) Department of State has temporarily suspended additional funding for UNRWA while we review these allegations and the actions taken by the United Nations in response to them,” said spokesman Matthew Miller.

The United States, along with Germany and the European Union, were the agency’s largest donors in 2022, according to Reuters.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, in turn, said that he would “assess the measures that need to be taken based on the results of a full and thorough investigation.”