Israel Denounces UN Finding that 9 UNRWA employees ‘may have been involved’ in Oct 7 attack

"The United Nations announced on Monday night that nine employees of the UNRWA agency for Palestinian refugees ‘may have been involved’ in Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and will be fired from the organization.

The Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), an independent body of the United Nations Secretariat, said in a terse press release that it had completed its investigation into 19 UNRWA staff members alleged by Israel to have taken part in the October 7 atrocities and concluded that in nine cases, the evidence obtained by the organization ‘indicated that the UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October 2023.’

Added the OIOS, ‘The employment of these individuals will be terminated in the interests of the Agency.’

In nine other cases, the OIOS claimed that the evidence of involvement was insufficient, and in one case, it said there was no evidence.

In response, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan branded the OIOS investigation ‘a disgrace,’ noting that it had focused only on 19 UNRWA employees, despite Israel having provided the UN with ‘detailed information’ about 100 UNRWA employees that Erdan said were Hamas members.

A probe was launched by UNRWA in January into allegations that seven staff members had participated in the October 7 attack, and an additional probe into another 12 employees was initiated in March...

‘The UN investigation, which focused solely on 19 UNRWA employees, is a disgrace!’ said Erdan following the UN announcement on Monday.

‘It is too little, too late – ignoring thousands of agency employees involved to various degrees in Hamas’s terror activities,’ he continued.

‘Israel provided the UN with detailed information regarding over 100 UNRWA employees who were direct members of the terrorist organization Hamas,’ he said. ‘Despite Israel’s extensive cooperation with, and provision of information to, the UN, its investigation’s conclusions are yet another disgrace.’...

Israel’s Foreign Ministry rejected that review as well, stating that Hamas’s penetration of the UN agency was so deep that ‘it is impossible to say where UNRWA ends and Hamas begins.’

‘If more than 2,135 UNRWA employees are members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and 1/5 of the principals of UNRWA schools are Hamas activists, the problem with UNRWA-Gaza is not a problem of a few bad apples,’ the ministry said in a statement, rejecting the review’s conclusions. ‘It is a poisoned and rotten tree whose roots are Hamas.’

Israel and pro-Israel lobbying groups have for years accused UNRWA staff of antisemitism and the glorification of terrorism, particularly within UNRWA’s extensive education system.

Several past reports by such organizations have found that UNRWA schools and teachers continue to teach hatred of Jews and glorify terrorism, including a 2022 report by the IMPACT-SE organization that UNRWA textbooks continue to contain incitement, and a 2023 report by the same organization along with the UN Watch group citing dozens of examples of social media posts by UNRWA employees that ‘glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis and incite antisemitism.’"