These controversial accusations, which the newspaper could not independently verify, sparked a high-level UN investigation and prompted a series of governments to suspend millions of dollars in funding to the agency at the height of the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza. .
The dossier, first reported by The New York Times, includes many of the accusations Israel has made for years against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees, or UNRWA, that it maintains a state of “interdependence” with Hamas.
But new accusations of complicity on October 7 — when Hamas-led militants invaded southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, many of them civilians — have thrown the UN into crisis and threatened its operations in Gaza. UNRWA is the leading provider of aid and shelter in the besieged enclave as a potential famine looms and has warned that funding could run out by the end of February.
Thirteen UNRWA employees were directly involved in the attacks, including six who infiltrated Israel, the document claims – five of whom were identified as belonging to Hamas. The document did not mention the name of the accused.
Two of those who entered Israel, and two other employees in Gaza, allegedly helped kidnap some of the 253 people captured that day. The file said that one of the hostages, likely among 105 hostages released during the cessation of fighting in late November, testified that she had been kidnapped by an UNRWA teacher.
The document alleges that three additional employees were directed via text message to gather at the assembly point on the night of October 6 to be supplied with weapons, although there is no confirmation that they joined the appointment. The file confirms that at least one UNRWA employee provided “logistical support” to the attack, and another employee was assigned to set up an operations center in the aftermath of the attack. It is unclear whether the accused employees followed the alleged orders.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the British channel Talk TV on Monday, “We discovered that there were UNRWA employees who actually participated directly or indirectly in the October 7 massacre.” “UNRWA is pierced by enthusiasm.”
The findings were presented Friday to foreign governments and the United Nations, according to an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential issues. However, Juliette Touma, UNRWA's communications director, said on Monday that Israel had not yet shared the full file with them.
This news came hours after the United Nations International Court of Justice ruled that Israel should take immediate steps to protect civilians in Gaza.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday that the UN's top investigative body, the New York-based Office of Internal Oversight Services, “immediately activated an investigation into these allegations.”
“Any United Nations employee involved in terrorist acts will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution,” Guterres said in a statement. He added that “nine employees were identified and terminated immediately,” “one of them was confirmed dead,” and “the identity of the other two is being clarified.”
The investigation places UNRWA in uncharted waters. It remains unclear how long the investigation will take, how it will be carried out in an active war zone and whether its results will be considered satisfactory by Israel and its allies. The longer the investigation drags on, the more precarious the agency's position becomes.
At least ten governments moved quickly to stop their support for UNRWA, including the United States, Britain, Germany and Australia. In 2022, the United States was the largest donor, contributing $344 million.
“There must be full accountability for anyone who participated in the heinous attacks that occurred on October 7,” the State Department said in a statement on Friday, adding that it had briefed members of Congress on the allegations.
UNRWA already has a “very robust system for verifying allegations” of wrongdoing by staff and contractors, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur in the occupied Palestinian territories, said by phone from Tunisia.
“The agency has already dismissed the members who allegedly committed the attacks,” she added. “Holding funds at this critical stage is completely unreasonable.”
The UNRWA crisis comes at a desperate moment for Gaza. At least 26,422 people, many of them women and children, have been killed, and 65,087 people have been injured since the start of the Israeli military operation, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The United Nations says more than 150 UNRWA employees are among the dead, the largest loss of life the organization has ever seen in a single conflict.
At least 1.9 million people are displaced in the enclave, and 90% of them eat less than one meal a day, according to the World Food Programme. Disease is spreading, and the health care system is in ruins.
UNRWA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini said on Sunday that more than two million Gazans depend almost entirely on the aid provided by the agency, and that more than a million have taken refuge in UN facilities, most of which are former schools. Even before funding stopped, aid organizations warned that Gaza was on the verge of complete humanitarian collapse, with hunger and exposure to the winter cold emerging as the most pressing threats to civilians.
Donors usually contribute funds throughout the year, so it was not immediately clear how much aid would be withheld. Touma said that without renewed funding, UNRWA would only be able to continue its operations until “the end of February.”
“These cuts will severely impact operations,” she added. “The timing is truly critical as the threat of famine looms and humanitarian needs worsen, with more and more people displaced.”
UNRWA coordinates the movement of humanitarian supplies into Gaza through the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings, a difficult and dangerous process that often takes place under fire.
Touma said that the agency is the largest food distributor in the sector, and one of the few remaining providers of medical care. She added that if the agency ends its work in Gaza, no other humanitarian group will be in a position to take its place.
“Never before have I seen such an arbitrary and reckless halting of a major lifeline simply because of allegations by one of the parties to the conflict,” said Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council. “They're going to stop funding all this work because of dozens of potentially dirty colleagues at UNRWA who have betrayed all the principles we stand for?”
UNRWA was established in 1949 and was mandated to assist Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced to leave their homes during the establishment of Israel. In the decades that followed, temporary refugee camps became permanent slums, and the agency assumed many state functions for stateless populations.
Israel has long accused UNRWA of supporting Hamas' military activities inside Gaza by allowing or condoning the group's use of UN facilities and the construction of an extensive underground tunnel network. Israel says the agency's schools and textbooks incite anti-Semitism and promote the Palestinian right of return.
Calls to close the agency intensified during the recent conflict. “You cannot win the war without destroying UNRWA, and the destruction must begin today,” Noga Arbel, a former Israeli official, told the Israeli parliament earlier this month.
However, without UNRWA, responsibility for some 5 million people in the Palestinian territories would fall to Israel.
In the occupied West Bank, tens of thousands of children study in UNRWA schools, and Palestinians rely on its medical facilities – helping to supplement the Western-backed, perpetually cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, based in Ramallah. The potential reduction in services could have a destabilizing effect there as well, at a time of increasing Israeli settler violence and Palestinian militancy.
UNRWA also provides health care, employment and education services to tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, who increasingly find themselves at the center of expanding regional violence.
Hazem Baalousha in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.
