UN refugee agency criticised by Israel, which claims Unrwa staff were implicated in 7 October Hamas attacks
Israeli diplomats have pre-emptively attacked the findings of two inquires into the role of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, in Gaza, on the day that one of the inquiries submitted its interim finding to the United Nations secretary general,
She did not specify which issues had been identified, but said: “The review group will now develop concrete and realistic recommendations on how to address these critical areas to strengthen and improve Unrwa.” The final report on Unrwa will be made public on 20 April. Israel also released new figures claiming its intelligence showed that 2,135 Unrwa staff were members of Hamas, representing 17% of the total workforce in Gaza, of whom at least 400 were active fighters.
The claims of Hamas infiltration could not be independently verified, and Israel has yet to publicly present any evidence to underpin them. The Israeli officials admitted that they faced a challenge in phasing out Unrwa’s food distribution role at a time when even its allies were demanding a big increase in aid flows into Gaza.
In the past, UK ministers have said they cannot foresee an organisation being able to replicate Unrwa’s work, but a decision to restore funding is made more complicated if Israel, the de facto post-war authority in Gaza, demands that its operations be wound up.
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