The United Nations said it will terminate the jobs of nine staffers with the agency for Palestinian refugees, based on an internal investigation.
What's new: The U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services completed its investigation into 19 area staff members with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres' office announced on Monday. The staffers were alleged to have links to Hamas' attacks on Israel. No evidence was found in one case; the evidence obtained by OIOS was "insufficient to support the staff members’ involvement" in nine other cases.
What's next: "With respect to these ten cases, appropriate measures will be taken in due course, in conformity with UNRWA regulations and rules," Guterres' office said. "In respect of the remaining nine cases, the evidence obtained by OIOS indicated that the UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October 2023. The employment of these individuals will be terminated in the interests of the agency."
What's important: UNRWA's Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini announced previously that 12 staffers were fired and seven others were put on administrative leave without pay due to the allegations. OIOS, which serves as the U.N.'s internal watchdog, began investigating some of UNRWA's 30,000 staff members after the U.N. was informed of Israel's allegations against them in January. The allegations prompted widespread condemnation of the U.N. agency and led the United States and more than a dozen other major donors to suspend about $450 million in funding for UNRWA, or almost half of its annual budget.
Who's involved: Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for Guterres, said he could not provide more details on the internal report, but said "the report itself can be seen by different countries" include some of UNRWA's donor nations. In Dec. 1949, the U.N. General Assembly established UNRWA to help Palestinians who fled their homes after Israel was created. Almost three quarters of a century later, it supports almost 6 million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
What's happening now: UNRWA denies collaborating with Hamas – and more than 200 UNRWA staffers have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war – but Israel continues to urge the U.N. to disband the agency. Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein says UNRWA is "part of the problem and not part of the solution, and anyone who seeks the best interests of Israel, the Gaza Strip and the region should act to replace UNWRA's activities with other agencies."
