Intelligence reports suggest that ten percent of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) employees have ties to Islamist militant groups, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The New York Times had reported earlier on reports that the agency employed at least 10 Hamas members, among whom were a school counselor who worked with his son to kidnap an Israeli woman and a social worker who distributed ammunition.
According to the reports, presented by Israel to American officials, around 1,200 of the estimated 12,000 people UNRWA employs in Gaza "have links to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, enough to warrant the suspension of funding to UNRWA. and about half have close relatives who belong to the Islamist militant groups."
The intelligence was reportedly gathered in part through monitoring of the employees' cell phones by Israeli intelligence services: some discussed their involvement in the attack, according to the dossier, while three others received text messages directing them to a particular location while the attack was ongoing, and one was told to bring rocket-propelled grenades storied in his home. Another employee distributed ammunition.
While the United States could not verify all of the information, the American officials found the reports credible enough to warrant the suspension of voluntary aid to the agency.
The United States is joined in suspending aid by Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Romania, and Finland. Former president Donald Trump previously suspended aid to the agency in 2018, but the approximately $200 million was restored upon the inauguration of the Biden administration.
In response to the intelligence, the United States has suspended aid to the agency, as have Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Romania, and Finland. The US returned to being one of the organization's largest funders in 2021 when US President Joe Biden restored $200m in funding that the Donald Trump administration had suspended in 2018.
Intelligence echoes report that UNRWA employee held abducted Israeli hostage
Some of the UN employees are believed to have participated in the deadly October 7 attack, during which thousands of terrorists from Gaza invaded Israel, killing more than 1,200 Israelis, a vast majority of whom were civilians, committing acts of rape and sexual violence against Israeli women, and kidnapping an estimated 260 people to hold hostage in Gaza.
Of those hostages, 110 have been released, almost all during a temporary ceasefire in November in which 105 Israeli civilian women and children, as well as foreign workers who were also taken hostage during the attack, were exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom were detained for security offenses and many of whom were affiliated with Hamas and other terrorist groups. There are still an estimated 132 hostages held captive by Hamas or other terrorists in the Strip.
In November, one released hostage reported having been held in captivity by a UNRWA teacher, according to Israeli media. At the time, the UN agency dismissed the reports as "unsubstantiated claims."
Following the revelation of this intelligence, the agency says that it has fired nine of the 12 employees and that two of the others are dead. António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, said that he was "horrified by these accusations," but that he "strongly appeal[s]s to the governments that have suspended their contributions to, at least, guarantee the continuity of UNRWA's operations."
The agency is responsible for handling much of the humanitarian aid that has flowed into the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack on October 7 initiated the current war with Israel, as a result of which tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed— though official estimates are only available through the Hamas-governed health ministry and do not distinguish between combatants and civilians— and some 2 million have been internally displaced.
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA's commissioner-general, charged that withdrawing funding could have catastrophic results, saying it is "immensely irresponsible to sanction an agency and an entire community it serves because of allegations of criminal acts against some individuals."
In response to the charges of irresponsibility, a spokesman for the German foreign ministry said Monday that UNRWA is not the only source of humanitarian aid for Palestinians, and that Berlin will "continue to advocate for more humanitarian aid to be provided."