UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The internal United Nations investigation following charges brought by Israel in January against 12 employees of the Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) for their alleged involvement in the Hamas attacks of October 7 has led to this stage to close one file and set aside three others for lack of sufficient information, the UN spokesperson announced on Friday.
Investigations are continuing on the other eight, said Stéphane Dujarric.
Regarding the first employee mentioned, “no evidence has been provided by Israel to support the allegations” against him and the UN is “exploring the avenues of administrative corrective action in his case”.
Regarding the three cases whose study was “suspended”, the spokesperson indicated that “the information provided by Israel is not sufficient” to initiate an internal investigation.
Ten of these 12 employees were dismissed by UNRWA, the other two having been killed since the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza in circumstances which have not been specified.
The Israeli government has since brought charges against seven other employees of UNRWA, which employed 13,000 people in the Gaza Strip before the war. An investigation is underway for six of them, the seventh case having also been put aside due to lack of sufficient information, said Stéphane Dujarric.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, French version by Sophie Louet and Tangi Salaün, editing by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)
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