In an interview with The New York Times on Friday, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general, said, “Our employees are part of the social fabric in Gaza and its ecosystem. And as part of the social fabric in Gaza, you also have Hamas,” alluding to the organizations' connections to terror group Hamas.
This interview occurred against the backdrop of the exposure of UNRWA’s Hamas ties after the October 7 massacre and the Hamas tunnels revealed underneath the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza.
The Times revealed that ten years ago when a senior UN legal officer in Gaza began investigating whether several of its employees were members of Hamas, he began receiving death threats, culminating in a live grenade sent to his office. This officer was evacuated from the region. Several of these instances occurred and remained unreported.
Although UNRWA says that it has taken reports that its employees were also members of Hamas seriously, Israel says that UNRWA has not gone far enough to root out Hamas in the organization and was unwilling to clean up the issue systematically, the Times reported.
UNRWA officials say that those who were revealed to have ties to Hamas were fired or left the agency. However, this issue was not dealt with systematically but rather on a case-by-case basis and in private.
Israel argues that UNRWA is completely infiltrated by Hamas, saying that one in ten UNRWA employees in Gaza are Hamas members. Furthermore, although there is no shaft that leads to the tunnel from UNRWA facilities, the IDF argues that the tunnel was close enough to the surface that the UNRWA workers should have been able to hear its construction. The IDF also pointed out wires that led to the underground compound from a room inside UNRWA offices.
Lazzarini said that he did not have the “expertise” to “monitor what is underneath the city.”
Matthias Schmale, the former UNRWA director in Gaza from 2017 to 2021, said that there was a “working relationship” with Hamas, although there were significant “tensions and disagreements” with the terror organization.
Aid experts do not believe that UNRWA could have ever completely rid itself of Hamas because of the nature of working in an authoritarian climate, the Times reported. UNRWA highlighted its little communication with Hamas members and its leadership, saying that they only meet once a year.
However, Major Nir Dinar argued, “You have to be very naive to think that the UNRWA personnel did not know what was happening under their feet,” not least because the construction and maintenance of the tunnel would have required aboveground assistance. Maj. Dinar is a spokesman for the IDF military.
UNRWA's media continues as usual
In spite of these breaking revelations, UNRWA’s media is continuing as usual. On X, formerly Twitter, the agency has been calling to prevent a military operation in Rafah and announced IDF firing on UNRWA facilities and personnel. The agency tweeted on Sunday that a food shipment was stuck at the Israeli port due to Israeli restrictions, causing hunger and starvation. On LinkedIn, the agency posted a job vacancy in Amman.
The top replies to these posts all mention UNRWA’s collaboration with Hamas. Below the LinkedIn job listing, one commenter asked, “Is experience in building tunnels a mandatory requirement?” Several commenters expressed a similar sentiment. Below UNRWA’s post about blocked food shipments, a commenter wrote, “Haven’t you stolen enough aid this week?” Several of the comments under the post said the same.
Israeli leaders want to replace UNRWA with a different agency, although those in opposition argue that disbanding UNRWA at this point in the war would worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, arguing that the agency provides much-needed aid to the region and is irreplaceable.
“I think that it is time that the international community and the UN itself understand that UNRWA’s mission has to end. UNRWA is self-perpetuating. It is self-perpetuating also in its desire to keep alive the Palestinian refugee issue. And we need to get other UN agencies and other aid agencies replacing UNRWA if we’re going to solve the problem of Gaza as we intend to. There are other agencies in the UN… in the world. They have to replace UNRWA,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Philippe Lazzarini and UN officials continue to argue that defunding and disbanding UNRWA is a mistake and will only worsen the humanitarian crisis existing in the Strip.