Israel has not offered proof to assist its allegations that many workers of the primary U.N. company for Palestinian refugees are members of terrorist organizations, based on an impartial assessment commissioned by the United Nations that was launched on Monday.
The assessment was introduced in January, earlier than Israel circulated claims that vital numbers of workers of the company, often called UNRWA, have been members of terrorist teams.
However by the point investigators began engaged on the assessment in early February, it had taken on extra significance: Israel had accused a couple of dozen workers of the company, which employs about 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza, of involvement within the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assaults on Israel or their aftermath. Israel had additionally stated that one in 10 UNRWA workers in Gaza was a member of Hamas or its ally, Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Talking at a information convention at U.N. headquarters in New York on Monday, Catherine Colonna, the previous French overseas minister who led the inquiry, stated she wished to be “very clear” that her assessment didn’t tackle the allegations that some UNRWA employees members have been concerned within the Oct. 7 assaults. That query stays below inside investigation by the U.N.
“It’s a separate mission, and it’s not in our mandate,” she stated.
Greater than a dozen nations, together with the US, suspended funding to UNRWA in gentle of the allegations. The United Nations fired 10 of the 12 workers accused within the assault whereas pleading with donor nations to revive funding at a time when the vast majority of Gazans rely upon the group for meals and shelter. It additionally introduced an inside investigation together with the impartial exterior assessment, which was made public on Monday.
The assessment stated that UNRWA had lengthy shared lists of its workers with Israel, however that the Israeli authorities had not flagged any issues about company workers since 2011.
“Israel made public claims {that a} vital variety of UNRWA workers are members of terrorist organizations,” the report stated. “Nevertheless, Israel has but to offer supporting proof of this.”
In a press release on Monday, Oren Marmorstein, a spokesman for the Israeli overseas ministry, stated, “Hamas has infiltrated UNRWA so deeply that it’s now not doable to find out the place UNRWA ends and the place Hamas begins.”
“This isn’t what a real and thorough assessment seems like,” he added. “That is what an effort to keep away from the issue and never tackle it head on seems like.”
Amid calls from Israel to shutter the company, the report commissioned by the United Nations stated UNRWA remained “pivotal in offering life-saving humanitarian help and important social companies,” including that “UNRWA is irreplaceable and indispensable to Palestinians’ human and financial growth.”
Nonetheless, the report discovered that regardless of “strong” pointers to make sure its neutrality, there have been weaknesses of their implementation due to issues within the company’s vetting processes, its inside investigations and restrictions on its capacity to forestall armed teams from utilizing its amenities for navy functions.
The report stated the company “lacks the assist of intelligence companies to undertake environment friendly and complete vetting.”
A scarcity of sources had slowed the company’s investigations into alleged breaches of neutrality, “limiting UNRWA’s capacity to draw, rent, practice and retain appropriate, skilled and certified investigators,” the report stated.
The report added that there had been situations when company workers had publicly expressed political beliefs, its faculties had used textbooks with “problematic content material” and a few of its amenities had been used for “political or navy functions.” The report didn’t elaborate, however stated that breaches of neutrality “might embrace the invention of weapons, cavities and tunnel openings, navy actions or incursions.”
The assessment provided suggestions for safeguarding the company’s neutrality, together with extra screening and coaching of employees members, and nearer cooperation with host nations and Israel in sharing worker rosters.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the U.N. secretary basic, António Guterres, stated on Monday that Mr. Guterres had accepted the report’s suggestions and appealed for donors “to actively assist UNRWA, as it’s a lifeline for Palestine refugees within the area.”
Canada and Sweden — among the many nations that suspended funds over Israel’s allegations — resumed funding UNRWA final month, citing the spiraling humanitarian disaster in Gaza and steps taken by the company to enhance accountability. The USA has stated it could await the outcomes of U.N. investigations earlier than deciding whether or not to renew donations to UNRWA.
UNRWA was created to offer help to Palestinians throughout the Center East whose households fled or have been pressured from lands in the course of the wars surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948. Since Hamas received Palestinian elections in Gaza in 2006 and ousted a rival faction from the enclave a 12 months later, the group ceded a lot of its civil duties to UNRWA.
Israel has alleged that UNRWA is basically compromised, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has known as for it to be closed and changed “with accountable worldwide help businesses.”
Michael Levenson and Anushka Patil contributed reporting.