According to the New York Times, “Israel has charged that at least 12 employees of UNRWA — the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees — participated in the Oct. 7 attack and that as many as 1,300 employees are members of Hamas.” The NYT says the United Nations is investigating the allegations first made public on Friday (Jan. 26), and has fired nine of the accused employees. The newspaper explains the source of the Israeli charges:
The Israeli military provided the United States with a dossier alleging that roughly 10 percent of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza are Hamas members. That assessment is derived from cross-referencing an UNRWA staff list with a directory of Hamas members that soldiers found on a computer during a recent operation inside Gaza, according to the military officials.
In response to the Israeli allegations, so far 18
countries have said they are temporarily suspending their donations to UNRWA, including the US, 13 in Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. On Tuesday (Jan 30) António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, plans to meet with representatives of some of the donors and will urge them to continue supporting UNRWA.
“He is personally horrified by the accusations against employees of UNRWA but his message to donors, especially those who have suspended their contribution, is to at least guarantee the continuity of UNRWA’s operations,” said Mr. Guterres’s spokesman. “The dire needs of the desperate population they serve must be met.”
The NYT explains that UNRWA was founded in 1949 “to care for Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes during the wars surrounding the creation of Israel.”
Now, it provides services to more than 5 million refugees and their descendants who live across the Middle East, including Gaza. Palestinians and their supporters say UNRWA is a crucial lifeline to some of the most vulnerable people in the Middle East.
“The people who will be affected by this are the 1 million people taking refuge in UNRWA shelters in Gaza,” said a former spokesman for the agency.
The NYT quotes UNRWA’s director of communications that “if even a few donors fail to restore their funding by the end of February,” the agency will be unable to pay its 30,000 employees throughout the Middle East.
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For more information about UNRWA and which countries have cut funding to UNRWA and why, see an excellent article in Al-Jazeera.