Until now, few details had filtered out on the Israeli accusations which led UNRWA to part ways with several of its employees. But the New York Times lifted a corner of the veil on Sunday January 28 by revealing the contents of a file sent by Israel to the American government in which appears the list of people incriminated and their supposed role in the October 7 attack.

Presented to US officials on Friday, the report lists the names and positions held as well as the allegations made against twelve people. Nine of them have already been fired, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced on Sunday 

Israeli intelligence services claim in particular to have established the movements of six men inside Israel on October 7 based on the geolocation of their phones. Other employees were compromised through wiretaps evoking their participation in the operation led by Hamas. Finally, three others received text messages ordering them to report to assembly points, and one was ordered to bring stored rockets to his home, according to the Israeli file.

The report claims that ten UNRWA employees are part of Hamas while another is allegedly affiliated with Islamic Jihad. At the same time, several defendants held teaching jobs in schools financed by the UN. The Israeli file also mentions an office worker, a social worker and a warehouse manager.

According to Israel, one of the UN agency's employees directly participated in the massacre of

kibbutz Be'eri, in which 97 people were murdered by Hamas on October 7. But the most detailed accusations in the file concern a school counselor from Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip, suspected of having plotted with his son the kidnapping of a woman in Israel.

Another case raised by the Jewish State: that of a social worker from Nuseirat, in the center of the Gaza Strip, accused of having helped bring the body of an Israeli soldier back to the Palestinian territory. This Palestinian is also suspected of having distributed ammunition and coordinated the use of vehicles during the October 7 attacks which left around 1,140 dead, mainly civilians. In response, Israel launched a vast military operation in Gaza, which left 26,422 people dead, the vast majority of them women, children and adolescents, according to the latest report provided on Sunday by the Hamas Ministry of Health.

A collective “punishment”, according to Norway

The Israeli accusations come against a backdrop of historic tensions between the Jewish state and UNRWA, which since 1949 has been helping families in the Middle East displaced by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Gaza, the UN agency is accused by Israel of having fallen under the control of Hamas militants, which it denies. In 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even called for the dismantling of this UN body, pleading for its merger with the main UN agency for refugees.

Asked by the New York Times, Unrwa indicated that two of the twelve employees implicated by Israel had died. The agency, however, did not wish to provide further information as long as the internal investigation launched by the UN continues.

Although the United States has not yet officially corroborated the Israeli claims, American officials considered them credible enough to justify suspending their aid. Since then, donor countries have withdrawn one after the other, raising fears of a halt to humanitarian aid operations in Gaza.

Italy, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Finland, Germany, Japan and Austria immediately followed in the footsteps of the United States. For its part, France announced that it was not planning a new payment in the first quarter of 2024 requiring “transparency and security” to resume its support for the UN agency. On the other hand, Norway, one of the major donors to UNRWA, will maintain its funding. 

"While I share the concern over the very serious allegations against some UNRWA staff, I urge other donors to consider the broader consequences of reducing funding to UNRWA at this time of crisis. extreme humanitarian distress", justified the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Espen Barth Eide, in a press release. “We should not collectively punish millions of people,” he added.

See alsoThe ICJ calls on Israel to prevent any possible act of “genocide” in Gaza

Faced with threats of famine, collapse of the health system and the massive displacement of the Palestinian population, the work of UNRWA is considered crucial, enabling the delivery and coordination of the distribution of humanitarian aid to the south of the Gaza Strip, where most of the population of the besieged enclave is concentrated.

“Two million civilians in Gaza depend on critical aid from UNRWA for their daily survival, but current UNRWA funding will not allow it to meet all needs in February,” Antonio Guterres insisted on Sunday, urging the international community to guarantee the continuity of its operations.

The UN Secretary General also recalled on this occasion the dangerousness of the mission of his humanitarian workers. Since the start of the offensive in the Palestinian enclave, more than 150 UNRWA employees have been killed in hostilities between Hamas and the Israeli army.

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