UN staff links to Hamas
Gaza humanitarian agency at threat as donors pull out
Israel has vowed to stop the UN humanitarian aid agency in Gaza from operating after the war, and called for its chief to resign, after the sacking of nine staff accused of involvement in Hamas’s October 7 attack.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it had fired the employees over Israel’s accusations, promising a thorough investigation into the claims, which were not specified.
Israel said the Hamas attacks had involved “people who are on their (UNRWA) salaries”.
Donors including Australia,
Germany, Britain, Italy and Finland have followed the lead of the US, which suspended additional funding to the agency over the accusations.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called on UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe
Lazzarini to quit his post.
“Mr Lazzarini please resign,” Katz said in response to a post by the UNRWA chief warning that funding cuts meant the agency’s operation in Gaza was about to collapse.
Mr Katz had said the UNRWA “must be replaced with agencies dedicated to genuine peace and development” in Gaza’s rebuilding.
Hamas slammed Israeli “threats” against UNRWA on Saturday, urging the UN and other international organisations not to “cave in to the threats and blackmail”.
Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell praised the agency Friday
for “playing a vital role over many years supporting vulnerable Palestinian refugees”.
But he said the bloc expected “full transparency”, as well as “immediate measures against staff involved”.
Johann Soufi, a lawyer and former director of UNRWA’s loffice in Gaza, said the agency had “always had a zero-tolerance policy for violence and incitement to hatred”.
“Sanctioning UNRWA, which is barely keeping the entire population of Gaza alive, for the alleged responsibility of a few employees, is tantamount to collectively punishing the Gazan population, which is living in catastrophic humanitarian conditions,” he said.
UNRWA provides healthcare, education and other humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Mr Lazzarini said an investigation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services into “the heinous allegations will establish the facts”.
“It would be immensely irresponsible to sanction an agency and an entire community it serves because of allegations of criminal acts against some individuals.”