U.N. Fires Nine Aid Workers Accused of Taking Part in Oct. 7 Attack, but Clears 10 Others

[Pelican Press 0]

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U.N. Fires Nine Aid Workers Accused of Taking Part in Oct. 7 *******, but Clears 10 Others

U.N. investigators cleared 10 employees of a ************ ******** agency in Gaza accused of taking part in the Oct. 7 ****** ******* on *******, but nine others were fired because of possible involvement, the ******* Nations said.

The investigators found evidence that the employees “may have been involved” in the *******, which set off the war in the Gaza Strip, the U.N. said. It said they had been fired “in the interests of the agency.”

The investigation’s conclusion appeared to bring to a close, for now at least, a controversy that began after ******* leveled the alarming accusations in January against the U.N. agency for ************ refugees, known as UNRWA. The allegations led dozens of donor nations to suspend hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for the agency, threatening to hobble its aid operations in Gaza.

With 13,000 staff members in the embattled territory, UNRWA has been key to efforts to provide shelter, food and other basic services to Gazans during nine months of war that has displaced most of the territory’s 2.2 million people. Tens of thousands have been *******, according to Gaza’s health authorities.

In recent months, most donor nations have resumed funding for the agency, citing its critical role in delivering aid to desperate Gazans, as well as the results of a separate U.N. investigation into UNRWA’s adherence to U.N. neutrality rules that was released in April. But one of its biggest funders, the ******* States, has not done so. U.S. lawmakers in March blocked all donations for one year.

In a statement on Monday, the agency’s head, Philippe Lazzarini, acknowledged the investigators’ findings and said that the nine employees who were deemed to have possibly participated in the ******* “cannot work for UNRWA.”

“I reiterate UNRWA’s condemnation of the 7 October ******* in the strongest possible terms,” he said.

The ******** ambassador to the ******* Nations, Gilad Erdan, dismissed the report as “a disgrace,” calling it “too little and too late.” In a post on social media, Mr. Erdan accused the investigators of ignoring evidence ******* had provided and called for the agency to be shut down.

Mr. Lazzarini said the agency’s priority was to “continue lifesaving and critical services” for ************ refugees in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East, “especially in the face of the ongoing war, the instability and risk of regional escalation.”

******* initially accused 12 UNRWA workers of involvement in the Oct. 7 *******, in which about 1,200 people were *******. In later months, seven other cases were added.

The investigation found no evidence against one of those employees and insufficient evidence against nine others, the U.N. said on Monday.

The ******** accusations came against the backdrop of decades of friction with UNRWA, which the ******* Nations General Assembly created in 1949 to care for those displaced in the war surrounding *******’s creation. More than 700,000 ************ ****** fled or were forced from their homes in what became *******, and the agency grants ******** status to them and their descendants, who now number nearly six million.

Although it has no official role in resolving the refugees’ plight, Palestinians have long seen it as their protector, and as proof that world powers remain invested in their fate.

Many Israelis, however, argue that the agency perpetuates the conflict by encouraging the belief in a ************ “right of return” to what is now *******. That, critics say, would amount to a demographic threat that would ******** the ******* state.

In addition to its accusations against individual staff members, ******** officials have charged that UNRWA in Gaza has been deeply infiltrated by members of ****** and other militant groups, an allegation agency officials deny.

The investigation whose results were released on Monday did not examine that broader issue, only looking into the allegations of involvement by individual employees in the Oct. 7 *******.

The earlier investigation, whose results were released in April, found that UNRWA had strong protocols for ensuring its neutrality but made a range of recommendations for how it could do better.

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