Scandal at the UN: some employees fired for participating in the Hamas attack against Israel and the United States suspends aid

The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) announced on Friday that it had fired several employees and launched an investigation his alleged participation in the October 7 attacks by the Islamist movement Hamas in Israel.

Israeli authorities provided the agency with “information on the alleged participation of several members” of the agency “in the terrible attacks of October 7,” UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.

The United States reacted to the news by suspending aid to the Agency.

“The United States is extremely concerned by allegations that twelve UNRWA employees may have been involved in the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel,” the State Department said in a statement.

UNRWA announced this Friday its decision to rsplit the contracts of multiple members of its personnel who allegedly participated in the attacks and of start an investigation to clarify the facts.

According to a statement from his spokesperson, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, was the first informed by the agency’s Commissioner General, Philippe Lazzarini, of “extremely serious allegations” implicating an unspecified number of UN members in those attacks. UNRWA. , to which Guterres He was “horrified”.

After which he asked Lazzarini for a quick investigation and to conclude with the dismissal “and potential criminal prosecution” against any member of the agency proven to have participated in those events, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,100 people – most of them Israeli civilians – and the kidnapping of 240 others.

In addition to this specific investigation, Guterres announced another, more global, on the general activity of UNRWA.

Israel has repeatedly accused UNRWA of complicity with Hamas in Gaza and has claimed that many of its members are actually militants of the Islamist group, something the UN had always denied.

Furthermore, these accusations served Israel well question the neutrality of UN agencies in general and all its agencies, including its secretary general.

With more than 30,000 employees, UNRWA is the largest organization in Gaza outside the government of the Strip.

“To protect the agency’s ability to provide humanitarian assistance, I have decided to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation to establish the truth without delay,” Lazzarini said.

“Any UNRWA employee involved in acts of terrorism will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution,” he added.

The attacks of October 7 triggered the latest escalation of violence in the region and led Israel to declare war and launch an air offensive before landing on the Gaza Strip, where Hamas governs, having until now left more than 26,000 deaths.

“These chilling allegations affect more than two million people in Gaza They depend on the life-saving assistance provided by the agency since the war started,” Lazzarini said.

“Whoever betrays the fundamental values ​​of the United Nations also betrays those we serve in Gaza, throughout the region and in other parts of the world,” he added, according to the Europa Press agency.