UNRWA fires 9 staffers after internal probe suggests possible involvement in Oct. 7 attacks

Nine staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for PalestineRefugees (UNRWA) may have been involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel, and they will be fired, the UN said on Monday.

The UNsecretary general's office announced the move in a brief statement to journalists. It did not elaborate on the UNRWA staffers' likely role in the attack.

"For nine people, the evidence was sufficient to conclude that they may have been involved in the seventh of October attacks," said Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary general.

He was referring to findings of the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), which he said had completed its investigation into the alleged involvement of 19 UNRWA staff members in the attacks.

The OIOS said it drew on evidence provided by Israel in discussions with Israeli authorities. It said it could not independently corroborate that evidence since it did not have direct access to it.

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The investigators also reviewed internal UNRWA information, including staff records, email and other communications data. It said it found sufficient evidence pointing to nine employees' potential involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks.

"OIOS made findings in relation to each of the 19 UNRWA staff members alleged to have been involved in the attacks," Haq said.

"In one case, no evidence was obtained by OIOS to support the allegations of the staff member's involvement, while in nine other cases, the evidence obtained by OIOS was insufficient to support the staff members'involvement."

Haq said all nine individuals who the investigation concluded may have been involved were men. He did not give details of what they may have done.

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International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen says Canada is restoring funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, after pausing it in January when Israel claimed some of its employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attack.

"For us, any participation in the attacks is a tremendous betrayal of the sort of work that we are supposed to be doing on behalf of the Palestinian people."

UNRWA previously fired 12 staffers and put seven on administrative leave without pay over the claims. The group of nine staffers the UN announced it had fired Monday includes some from each group, said Juliette Touma, communications director for UNRWA. The UN did not clarify how many have now been fired from the agency in total.

The UN's internal watchdog has been investigating the agency since Israel in January accused 12 UNRWA staffers of being involved in the Oct. 7 attacks, in whichPalestinian militants killed 1,200 people and took some 250 others into Hamas-controlled Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent siege on Gaza has killed more than 39,500 people, according to the enclave's Health Ministry.

Israel stepped up its accusations in March, saying more than450 UNRWA staff were military operatives in Gaza terrorist groups. UNRWA employs 32,000 people across its area of operations, 13,000 of them in Gaza.

UNRWAsaid in March that some employees released into Gaza from Israeli detention reported having been pressured by Israeli authorities into falsely stating that the agency has Hamas links and that staff took part in the Oct. 7 attacks.

Israel's allegations initially led top donor countries to suspend their funding for UNRWA, the main agency providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza amid the 10-month-old war there. That caused a cash crunch of about $450 million US. Since then, all donor countries except the United Stateshave decided to resume funding.