Body dragged away “like a trophy”.
Mother of Israeli victim makes serious accusations against UN employees
February 22, 2024, 3:08 p.m
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The UN relief agency for Palestine refugees is said to be deeply involved in Hamas’ terrorist activities. Aid workers are accused of being involved in the massacre in Israel. Now the mother of a 21-year-old Israeli is also making serious allegations.
The mother of a young Israeli killed in the Hamas massacres on October 7th has blamed the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA for her son’s abduction. “How can the UN pay this man who dragged my son’s slender body across the ground and then brought him to Gaza like a trophy,” Ajelet Samerano said in Tel Aviv after the release of a video showing him the body of her 21-year-old son Jonathan is dragged into a white jeep by a suspected UNRWA employee.
Jonathan Samerano from Tel Aviv was attending the Nova music festival with friends on October 7th, when fighters from Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the EU and the USA, entered Israel from the Gaza Strip, overran military posts and kibbutzes and the techno- Party attacked in southern Israel. The 21-year-old escaped the Islamists’ attack on the festival in the Negev Desert, but was killed in the nearby Kibbutz Beeri.
According to the Israeli government, the man seen in the video with Samerano’s body is a UNRWA social worker. The man was identified as Faisal Ali Mussalem al-Naami. In addition to his UNRWA work, the 45-year-old was also a member of a Hamas command unit and “involved in the kidnapping of a soldier from Beeri.” The government said he also coordinated “the transfer of weapons and trucks” on October 7th.
At a press conference held by the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons, Ajelet Samerano called on the UN to immediately release her son’s body. “How can social workers from an organization that claims to promote good in the world do something so cruel and inhumane?” the mother asked. Other Palestinians accused of involvement in the Hamas massacres are said to be teachers or employees of UNRWA-run schools and hospitals, according to Israeli authorities.
On behalf of the forum’s members, the head of its legal team, Schelly Aviv Jeini, called for a “comprehensive and transparent” investigation into the allegations. “We want assurances that the principle of neutrality, so important to the mission of the UN, will not only be upheld but actively protected.”
Bad suspicion against UN aid agency
Serious allegations against UNRWA had already become known at the end of January: twelve employees were suspected of being involved in the Hamas attack on October 7th. In response to the allegations, numerous countries, including Germany and the USA, suspended their payments to the aid organization.
The UN fired the 12 UNRWA employees and opened two separate investigations – one into allegations of collaboration with Hamas, another into UNRWA’s general political neutrality. In mid-February, the Israeli army also reported the discovery of a Hamas tunnel under the UNRWA headquarters in the city of Gaza.
According to Israeli information, the radical Islamic Hamas killed around 1,140 people in its major attack on Israel on October 7th and kidnapped around 250 others as hostages in the Gaza Strip. 130 of them are still in Hamas’ control, although 30 of them are said to be dead. Since then, Israel has taken massive military action in the Gaza Strip, with the declared aim of destroying Hamas.