by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
GENEVA, January 26 (Reuters) – The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) announced on Friday the opening of an investigation into the alleged involvement of several of its employees in the Hamas attacks on October 7 against Israel.
The agency’s general commissioner, Philippe Lazzarini, declared that he had decided without delay to dismiss these people.
“Israeli authorities have provided UNRWA with information relating to the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific October 7 attacks against Israel,” he said.
“To guarantee the agency’s capacity to provide humanitarian assistance, I decided to immediately terminate the contracts of these employees and launched an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay,” added the Commissioner General, without specifying the number of employees concerned nor the nature of their alleged involvement.
Asked about this, an UNRWA spokesperson declined to provide further details.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, was informed of these facts and he is “horrified”, said his spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric.
UNRWA, founded in 1949 following the first Israeli-Palestinian war, helps Palestinian refugees with health, education, humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and in Liban.
Its main donors, according to the 2022 list, are the United States, Germany and the European Union.
Its role is decisive in assisting the populations of the Gaza Strip, under fire from the Israeli army since October 7.
The US State Department said it was troubled by the accusations against agency employees.
“The State Department has temporarily suspended further funding to UNRWA while it reviews these allegations and what actions the United Nations is taking in this regard,” spokesman Matthew Miller said. (With the contribution of Emma Farge and Nidal Al Mughrabi; French version Sophie Louet)
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