Evidence against UNRWA staffers stronger than UN investigators let on
Several media outlets and critics of Israel noted that Monday’s release of results of an internal United Nations investigation stated that nine UNRWA staffers “may” have participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres answers questions at a press conference on May 13, 2024. Source: YouTube/United Nations.
But a spokesman for the head of the United Nations later clarified that the conclusions were more definitive in nature.
Chris Gunness, a virulent anti-Israel former communications director for the scandal-plagued UNRWA Palestinian-only aid and social services agency, tweeted on Monday that “the UN investigation has found Israel’s claims that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7/10 attack to be baseless. Allegations into more than half were rejected outright. Of the few remaining, the UN says there MAY have been involvement, not that there was.”
Gunness, like others, used the official language of “may” to sweep away the findings.
But, pressed at a journalists’ briefing on Monday, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, conceded it went further than that.
Asked whether those nine UNRWA workers “likely or highly likely were part of the attacks,” Haq responded, “I think that’s a good way of describing it.”
The investigators from the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) insisted that without fuller evidence sharing from Israeli officials, they could not independently verify or corroborate the allegations, leaving doubt in the language of their findings as to the veracity of the allegations.
Nevertheless, UNRWA announced it had terminated the nine staffers under question.
Haq said further steps would be taken regarding another nine accused staffers for whom insufficient evidence existed and one staff member for whom no evidence was delivered, according to OIOS. It is likely those staffers, if they are not deceased, will have their suspensions lifted.
Several Israeli officials and entities have insisted that the nine staffers who were “likely or very likely” to have participated in the massacre is the tip of the iceberg, with UNRWA-Hamas ties running deep.
Upon suspending funding for UNRWA in January in the wake of Israel’s allegations, the Biden administration announced it would wait until the OIOS investigation was concluded to announce whether it might restore its donations.
Since that time, Congress, in a bipartisan fashion, has passed legislation that would bar funding for UNRWA through at least March 2025, with additional bills potentially lengthening that time frame if passed through both houses and signed by Biden.
Fifteen other countries that also suspended funding have since restored it, largely after the release of a separate review of UNRWA’s neutrality and hiring practices. Critics say the review, conducted in part by European agencies that had previously absolved UNRWA of the criticisms against it, was a whitewash.
