The United Nations agency that assists Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Friday that it fired several of its employees after Israeli authorities provided the agency with information alleging their participation in the October 7 Hamas terror attack inside Israel.
"To protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay," UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.
"Any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution."
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has about 13,000 Palestinian staffers in the Gaza Strip. More than 150 have been killed since the war started in October following Hamas’ terror attack inside Israel that killed 1,200 people.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson said Lazzarini had briefed him on the "extremely serious allegations."
"The secretary-general is horrified by this news and has asked Mr. Lazzarini to investigate this matter swiftly and to ensure that any UNRWA employee shown to have participated or abetted in what transpired on 7 October, or in any other criminal activity, be terminated immediately and referred for potential criminal prosecution," spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
He said an "urgent and comprehensive independent review" of UNRWA will be conducted. Dujarric told reporters that the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight will investigate.
Israel has criticized UNRWA for years, alleging that the schools the agency operates have been used by Hamas for terrorist activities and that they promote an anti-Israel curriculum. Since the October 7 attacks, Israeli officials have accused some staffers of celebrating the attacks on social media.
"How symbolic is it that on International Holocaust Remembrance Day it was exposed that UNRWA employees took part in the massacre?" Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Gilad Erdan, told a Holocaust Remembrance Day event at the United Nations. "The U.N. is not only weaponized to delegitimize our existence, but also to physically exterminate us."
During the deadly October 7 attack, Hamas also took some 240 people hostage. The United States, Britain and the European Union have designated Hamas as a terrorist group.
"UNRWA reiterates its condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the abhorrent attacks of 7 October and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all Israeli hostages and their safe return to their families," Lazzarini said in his statement Friday.
U.N. Chief Guterres also reiterated that appeal at the Holocaust event.
UNRWA has been on the front lines in Gaza, bringing what relief assistance it can to the more than 2 million Palestinians in the territory. The Hamas-run Gaza Health ministry says more than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its offensive into the strip to eliminate the threat from Hamas.
US pauses funding
While the U.N. would only say that "several" UNRWA staff had been implicated and fired, the U.S. State Department said 12 staff were involved.
The United States, which is the single largest funder of UNRWA, said it is temporarily pausing additional funding while it reviews the allegations and steps the United Nations is taking to address them. Before the war started, Washington had contributed nearly $300 million to UNRWA in 2023.
Australia, Canada and Italy also suspended their funding to UNRWA.
The U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Guterres on Thursday "to emphasize the necessity of a thorough and swift investigation of this matter."
"There must be complete accountability for anyone who participated in the heinous attacks of October 7," spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Miller said Washington has reached out to the Israeli government to seek more information about the allegations and has briefed members of Congress.
Representative Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey and chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee, criticized the suspension of new funding for UNRWA as "totally insufficient."
"What we need is a comprehensive, fact-based approach to UNRWA that stops all funding and conditions future funding on a complete head-to-toe reform and restructuring of UNRWA," he said.
