The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East will be forced to suspend activities in the Middle East in general and the Gaza Strip in particular after February if it does not receive further funding.
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Reuters reported that earlier a number of countries, including the UK, Canada, the USA, Japan and Germany, announced the cessation of funding to UNRWA amid suspicions against some of the organization’s employees of links with the radical Palestinian movement Hamas.
The Israeli military has provided evidence to the UN and other international organizations that at least six of its employees may have been involved in the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Earlier, Israeli officials presented evidence they said linked Palestinian aid workers in Gaza to violence during the Hamas-led attack on Israel.
The New York Times wrote that the Israeli dossier presented to American officials on Friday listed the names and positions of UNRWA employees and the allegations against them.
The dossier states that Israeli intelligence officers determined the movements of six of them inside Israel on October 7 based on their telephone numbers; others were traced to phone calls in Gaza during which the Israelis claimed to discuss their involvement in the Hamas attack.
Three others received text messages ordering them to report to assembly points on October 7, and one of them was ordered to bring grenade launchers stored at his home, the dossier says.
The Israelis identified the 10 employees as members of Hamas, the militant group that controlled Gaza at the time of the Oct. 7 attack. Another they said was linked to another militant group, Islamic Jihad.
However, seven of the accused were also teachers in UNRWA schools, where they taught mathematics and Arabic to students. The other two worked in schools in other positions. The other three were described as a clerk, a social worker and a barn manager.
The most detailed allegations in the dossier concern a school psychologist from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, accused of working with his son to kidnap a woman from Israel.
A social worker from Nuseirat in central Gaza is accused of helping transport the body of a dead Israeli soldier to Gaza, as well as distributing ammunition and coordinating vehicles on the day of the attack.
New data
Not 12, but 190 employees of the United Nations Relief Agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) participated in the Hamas attack on Israel. Israeli intelligence says they are all members of Hamas, and some are members of the Islamic Jihad group.
Reuters has seen the six-page report. Here’s what’s there:
11 employees worked as teachers and were Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants. The report contains their names and photographs;
One employee, who simultaneously worked at the school, helped his son capture an Israeli woman;
One of the social workers took the body of an Israeli officer to Gaza and coordinated the terrorist movement;
Another social worker was seen in the massacre at Kibbutz Beeri, where every tenth resident was killed;
A fourth UNRWA figure has been implicated in the massacre at a music festival in Reim, where more than 360 people were killed, and an attack on a nearby military base.
The EU will not stop funding the UN Relief Agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) during the investigation. Additional funding is not provided until the end of February, but the fate of further financial support will be determined by the results of the investigation.
The EU is one of the largest donors to the UN Near East Agency.
Israel says UNRWA has many Hamas members and will work to stop the agency from operating in the Gaza Strip.
Funding for UNRWA has already been suspended by the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland and Germany.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.