(Amman) The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) considers “very important” an independent investigation into Israel’s allegations of “hiring terrorists” in the Gaza Strip, said A spokesperson for this organization told AFP on Wednesday in Amman.
Major donors – including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan – announced the suspension of their aid to UNRWA, after Israel accused 12 of its employees of involvement in The October 7 attack carried out by the Palestinian movement Hamas.
“We have 33,000 employees […] it is extremely important for us to have an independent investigation into the individual cases that Israel has raised,” said Tamara Alrifaï, UNRWA spokesperson.
“We received allegations from the Israeli government about 12 names in Gaza, we checked those names against our records of 13,000 employees in Gaza, and we were able to match eight of those names,” he said. she adds.
UNRWA announced that it had dismissed most of the employees concerned.
The Israeli government on Tuesday accused the UN agency of being “fundamentally compromised”, by letting Hamas “use its infrastructure” to carry out its military activities and by “hiring terrorists”.
The agency “massively hired terrorists” among its 13,000 employees in Gaza, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said.
He did not provide evidence to support these accusations, which the AFP was not able to verify.
The UNRWA spokesperson also indicated that “15 countries have so far announced to freeze their contributions to UNRWA”, warning that “if they maintain their decision, the impact will be catastrophic for the inhabitants of Gaza.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Wednesday that the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) remained the “backbone” of humanitarian aid in Gaza, following accusations from Israel of involvement with the Palestinian movement Hamas.
“Yesterday I met [mardi soir] donors to listen to their concerns and to detail the steps taken to resolve them,” the secretary general said during a meeting at the UN. He said “UNRWA was the backbone of any humanitarian response in Gaza” after countries including the US and UK suspended funding, following accusations of involvement of 12 staff of the agency in Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.
In this Palestinian territory completely besieged by Israel and in the grip of a major humanitarian crisis, entire neighborhoods were destroyed by bombings which pushed 1.7 million of the 2.4 million inhabitants to flee their homes, according to the UN .
“It will be a disaster […]because the humanitarian situation is already catastrophic in Gaza where the war continues, where displacement continues, where people are mainly in UNRWA shelters, where they receive flour from UNRWA to make bread, where they receive medical care from UNRWA,” underlined Tamara Alrifaï.
She said, however, that UNRWA, which provides aid to around two million people in Gaza, had received “assurances of support” in recent days from donors who have suspended their funding.