Following a probe by the UN oversight body, nine individuals have been fired, spokesperson says.
The United Nations says nine employees of UNRWA, its agency for Palestinian refugees, “may have been involved” in the October 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas, adding that they have been fired.
“We have sufficient information in order to take the actions that we’re taking – which is to say, the termination of these nine individuals,” UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Monday.
Haq said the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) will need to evaluate any further steps to “fully corroborate”.
Haq was speaking after the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) completed its investigation into the allegations earlier this year by Israel that a total of 19 UNRWA employees were involved in the attack.
“OIOS made findings in relation to each of the 19 UNRWA staff members alleged to have been involved in the attacks,” Haq said.
“In one case, no evidence was obtained by OIOS to support the allegations of the staff member’s involvement, while in nine other cases, the evidence obtained by OIOS was insufficient to support the staff member’s involvement,” he said.
Haq said all the nine individuals who the investigation concluded may have been involved were men.
He did not give details of what they may have done, but said: “For us, any participation in the attacks is a tremendous betrayal of the sort of work that we are supposed to be doing on behalf of the Palestinian people.”
In response to the UN announcement, Israel’s military said UNRWA had hit a “new level of low”.
“Your ‘relief’ agency has officially stooped to a new level of low, and it is time that the world sees your true face,” Lieutenant-Colonel Nadav Shoshani, the military’s international spokesperson, posted on X.
UNRWA employs 32,000 people across its area of operations, 13,000 of them in Gaza.
Following the Israeli allegations, many governments, including top donor the United States, abruptly suspended funding to the agency, threatening its efforts to deliver aid in Gaza. Several countries have since resumed payments.
“All but one country have resumed funding to UNRWA. The one that hasn’t has been the United States,” Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo said, reporting from the UN headquarters.
“This [UN] report will probably close the chapter, because I do not see any of these countries that have resumed funding to UNRWA now revoking it again.”
The Hamas’s October 7 attack killed more than 1,100 people, mostly civilians, and over 200 others were taken captives, according to Israeli officials. Since then, Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 39,550 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.
UNRWA, which has provided essential aid for Palestinians since 1949, has long been targeted by Israel. It stepped up its accusations in March this year, saying more than 450 UNRWA staff were alleged military operatives in Gaza.
UNWRA had then responded by saying some of its employees released into Gaza from Israeli detention had reported having been pressured by Israeli authorities into falsely stating that the agency had Hamas links and that its staff took part in the October 7 attacks.
Earlier this year, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini asked Israel to “stop its campaign” against the organisation, citing “outrageous” attacks on its employees, facilities and operations.