According to an independent assessment commissioned by the United Nations published on Monday, Israel did not provide evidence to support its allegations that many employees of the main United Nations agency for refugees Palestinians are members of terrorist organizations.
The review made no mention of Israeli allegations that dozens of employees of the agency, known as UNRWA, took part in a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7. “This was a mission separate case and it is not part of our mandate,” said Catherine Colonna, the former French foreign minister who headed the investigation.
The review is announced in Januarybefore Israel issued a claim that every 10 of UNRWA's 13,000 staff in the Gaza Strip were members of Hamas or its ally, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and that some of those staff had participated in the attack October 7.
But by the time investigators started looking into it in early FebruaryIsrael leveled those accusations, giving the investigation even more significance.
Speaking at a news conference at United Nations headquarters in New York on Monday, Ms. Colonna said she wanted to make it “very clear” that the question of the connection to October 7 is a separate question, a question that is still under internal investigation by the United Nations
She noted that while Israel has not presented evidence of ties to Hamas and other militant groups among UNRWA staff, that does not mean there is no evidence. “It's very different,” she said.
More than a dozen countries, including the United States, have suspended funding to UNRWA because of these allegations. The United Nations fired 10 of the 12 staff members accused in the attack and pleaded with donor countries to restore funding at a time when the majority of Gazans depend on the group for food and supplies. accommodation. It also announced an internal investigation alongside Independent external reviewannounced on Monday.
UNRWA has long shared lists of its staff with Israel, but the Israeli government has not raised any concerns about the agency's staff since 2011, the review said.
“Israel has publicly stated that a significant number of UNRWA staff are members of terrorist organizations,” the report said. “However, Israel has yet to provide evidence to support this.”
In a statement Monday, Oren Marmorstein, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said, “Hamas has infiltrated UNRWA so deeply that it is impossible to determine where UNRWA ends and Hamas begins.” .
He added: “This is not an honest and thorough assessment. “It appears that this is an attempt to avoid the problem rather than address it directly.”
Amid calls from Israel to close the agency, the UN-commissioned report said UNRWA still “plays an important role in providing life-saving humanitarian aid and essential social services”, adding that “UNRWA is irreplaceable and indispensable for the economic and human development of the Palestinian people. ”
However, the report found that despite “strong” guidelines to ensure neutrality, there were weaknesses in implementation due to problems with the agency's vetting process, investigations internal investigations and limitations on the ability to prevent armed groups from using agency facilities for military purposes. .
The report said the agency “lacked the support of intelligence agencies to conduct effective and comprehensive vetting.”
A lack of resources has slowed the agency's investigations into alleged neutrality violations, the report said, “limiting its ability to attract, hire, train and retain appropriate investigators , has experience and qualifications of UNRWA”.
The report added that there have been cases where agency employees have openly expressed political views, the agency's schools have used textbooks with “questionable content” and some Agency material was used for “political or military purposes.” The report did not elaborate but said neutrality violations “could include the discovery of weapons, holes and tunnels, military activities or intrusions.”
The review makes recommendations to protect the agency's neutrality, including additional staff screening and training, and closer cooperation with host countries and Israel on sharing employee lists. pellets.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said on Monday that Mr. circuit for Palestinian refugees in the region.”
Canada and Sweden – among the countries that have suspended payments because of Israel's accusations – continue to sponsor UNRWA last month, citing spiraling growth humanitarian disaster in Gaza and the steps the agency is taking to improve accountability. The United States said it would wait for the results of the United Nations investigation before deciding whether to continue donating to UNRWA.
UNRWA is created to provide aid to Palestinians across the Middle East whose families fled or were forced to leave the land during the wars surrounding the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Since Hamas' election victory of Palestinians in Gaza in 2006 and ousted a rival faction from the enclave a year later, the group ceded much of its territory to civilian responsibility to UNRWA.
Israel alleges that UNRWA has been fundamentally compromised, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the organization to be shut down and replaced “with responsible international aid agencies.”
Michael Levenson And Anushka Patil Report contributions.
