Israel has not supplied proof to assist its allegations that many workers of the principle U.N. company for Palestinian refugees are members of terrorist organizations, in response to an impartial assessment commissioned by the United Nations that was launched on Monday.
The assessment didn’t tackle Israel’s allegation {that a} dozen workers of the company, often known as UNRWA, have been concerned within the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7. “It’s a separate mission, and it’s not in our mandate,” mentioned Catherine Colonna, the previous French international minister who led the inquiry.
The assessment was announced in January, earlier than Israel circulated claims that one in 10 of UNRWA’s 13,000 workers within the Gaza Strip was a member of Hamas or its ally, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and that a few of these workers took half within the Oct. 7 assault.
However by the point investigators began engaged on the assessment in early February, Israel had leveled these fees, giving the inquiry added significance.
Talking at a information convention at U.N. headquarters in New York on Monday, Ms. Colonna mentioned she needed to be “very clear” that the query of involvement in Oct. 7 is a separate query, one that is still below inner investigation by the U.N.
Whereas Israel has not produced proof of ties to Hamas and different militant teams amongst UNRWA employees, that doesn’t imply there isn’t a proof, she famous. “It’s very completely different,” she mentioned.
Greater than a dozen nations, together with the US, suspended funding to UNRWA in mild of the allegations. The United Nations fired 10 of the 12 workers accused within the assault whereas pleading with donor nations to revive funding at a time when the vast majority of Gazans rely on the group for meals and shelter. It additionally introduced an inner investigation together with the impartial exterior assessment, which was made public on Monday.
After the Biden administration halted funding for the company pending the outcomes of investigations, Congress barred any cash for the company for a yr, by way of March 2025.
The assessment led by Ms. Colonna mentioned that UNRWA had lengthy shared lists of its workers with Israel, however that the Israeli authorities had not flagged any considerations about company workers since 2011.
“Israel made public claims {that a} vital variety of UNRWA workers are members of terrorist organizations,” the report mentioned. “Nonetheless, Israel has but to offer supporting proof of this.”
In an announcement on Monday, Oren Marmorstein, a spokesman for the Israeli international ministry, mentioned, “Hamas has infiltrated UNRWA so deeply that it’s now not doable to find out the place UNRWA ends and the place Hamas begins.”
“This isn’t what a real and thorough assessment appears to be like like,” he added. “That is what an effort to keep away from the issue and never tackle it head on appears to be like like.”
Amid calls from Israel to shutter the company, the report commissioned by the United Nations mentioned UNRWA remained “pivotal in offering life-saving humanitarian support and important social providers,” including that “UNRWA is irreplaceable and indispensable to Palestinians’ human and financial growth.”
Nonetheless, the report discovered that regardless of “sturdy” pointers to make sure its neutrality, there have been weaknesses of their implementation due to issues within the company’s vetting processes, its inner investigations and restrictions on its means to stop armed teams from utilizing its amenities for army functions.
The report mentioned the company “lacks the assist of intelligence providers to undertake environment friendly and complete vetting.”
A scarcity of assets had slowed the company’s investigations into alleged breaches of neutrality, “limiting UNRWA’s means to draw, rent, practice and retain appropriate, skilled and certified investigators,” the report mentioned.
The report added that there had been situations when company workers had publicly expressed political opinions, its colleges had used textbooks with “problematic content material” and a few of its amenities had been used for “political or army functions.” The report didn’t elaborate, however mentioned that breaches of neutrality “might embody the invention of weapons, cavities and tunnel openings, army actions or incursions.”
The assessment provided suggestions for shielding the company’s neutrality, together with further screening and coaching of workers members, and nearer cooperation with host nations and Israel in sharing worker rosters.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the U.N. secretary common, António Guterres, mentioned on Monday that Mr. Guterres had accepted the report’s suggestions and appealed for donors “to actively assist UNRWA, as it’s a lifeline for Palestine refugees within the area.”
Among the many nations that suspended funds over Israel’s allegations, a number of — together with Canada, Japan and Australia — have resumed funding UNRWA, citing the spiraling humanitarian disaster in Gaza and steps taken by the company to enhance accountability. America has mentioned it could anticipate the outcomes of U.N. investigations earlier than deciding whether or not to renew donations to UNRWA.
Matthew Miller, a State Division spokesman, informed reporters on Monday that the Biden administration was reviewing the United Nations report and had no evaluation but of its conclusions.
“Actually, we welcome the truth that the secretary-general has accepted the suggestions,” Mr. Miller mentioned, including that the US had “lengthy made clear that there must be reforms at UNRWA.”
“We have now all the time made clear that we expect the position that UNRWA performs is indispensable in offering and facilitating the supply of humanitarian help — not simply in Gaza, however within the broader area,” he mentioned. “We proceed to assist the work that they do.”
UNRWA was created to offer support to Palestinians throughout the Center East whose households fled or have been pressured from lands through the wars surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948. Since Hamas gained Palestinian elections in Gaza in 2006 and ousted a rival faction from the enclave a yr later, the group ceded a lot of its civil duties to UNRWA.
Israel has alleged that UNRWA is basically compromised, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has referred to as for it to be closed and changed “with accountable worldwide support businesses.”
Michael Levenson, Anushka Patil and Michael Crowley contributed reporting.
