Israel’s intelligence dossier on UNRWA links to Hamas and the October 7 attack was broader than first indicated, Reuters reported Monday. It included allegations against 190 employees, including teachers, who have doubled as Hamas or Islamic Jihad terrorists.
According to Israel, 12 of those named in the dossier were involved in the October attack, it has names and pictures for 11 of them, according to Reuters.
The dossier said one of the 11 is a school counselor who helped his son abduct a woman during the October 7 Hamas infiltration in which 1,200 people were killed and 253 were kidnapped.
An UNRWA social worker is accused of unspecified involvement in the transfer to Gaza of a slain Israeli soldier’s corpse and of coordinating the movements of pickup trucks used by the terrorists and of weapons supplies, the report said.
A third Palestinian in the dossier is accused of taking part in a rampage in Be’eri, one-tenth of whose residents were killed. A fourth is accused of participating in an attack on Re’im, where there is an army base, and also was the site of a rave where more than 360 revelers were killed.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini should resign, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.
“UNRWA employees participated in the massacre of October 7,” he said. “Lazzarini should conclude and resign.”
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh on Monday said Israel had conducted a “premeditated political attack” on the agency, which it has long criticized, and called for restoration of aid funds.
Israel has not made its allegations public, but the dossier has been leaked to major media outlets.
The dossier was shown to Reuters by a source who could not be identified by name or nationality. The source said it had been compiled by Israeli intelligence and shared with the United States, which on Friday suspended funding for UNRWA.
An Israeli official told Reuters the 190 mentioned in the dossier were “hardened fighters, killers,” whereas overall, some 10% of UNRWA staff were believed to have more general affiliation with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The agency employs 13,000 people in Gaza.
“From intelligence information, documents, and identity cards seized during the fighting, it is now possible to flag around 190 Hamas and PIJ terrorist operatives who serve as UNRWA employees,” according to the Hebrew-language dossier.
It accuses Hamas of “methodically and deliberately deploying its terrorist infrastructure in a wide range of UN facilities and assets,” including schools. Hamas denies that.
Two of the alleged Hamas operatives cited in the dossier are described as “eliminated” or killed by Israeli forces. A 12th Palestinian, whose name and picture are provided, is said to have no factional membership and to have infiltrated Israel on October 7.
Also on the list of 12 men are a UNRWA teacher accused of arming himself with an anti-tank rocket, another teacher accused of filming a hostage, and the manager of a shop in a UNRWA school accused of opening a war room for Islamic Jihad.
“The terrorist organizations are cynically exploiting the residents of the Strip and the international organizations whose mission is to provide aid… and in doing so are causing de facto harm to residents of the Strip,” the dossier said.
Over the weekend, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres vowed to hold to account any employee involved in “abhorrent” acts, but he implored nations to keep funding UNRWA for humanitarian reasons.
“The tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized,” Guterres said. “The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met.”
In the wake of the report, at least 15 nations have suspended funding to UNRWA, and the European Commission has called for an investigation into its Gaza staff to ensure that they did not participate in the October 7 Hamas-led massacre.
“A review of all UNRWA staff should be launched soonest to confirm that they did not participate in the attacks,” the European Commission said.
UNRWA fired nine of the accused staff members and has launched an investigation into the complaint.
European Union member states have been split on how best to respond to the allegations. At least eight of its members have suspended pledged funding for the 2024 budget pending the results of a UNRWA-led investigation.
Ireland and Norway have said funding should continue for the agency, which has been the main provider of humanitarian aid to Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war and which has lost 152 staff members in the war.
The EU Commission, however, stopped short of declaring that it was suspending funding.
“Currently, no additional funding to UNRWA is foreseen until the end of February,” it said.
The “EU is one of the largest donors of humanitarian and development aid to Palestinians in Gaza,” the commission said. It assured the Palestinians that “humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank will continue unabated through partner organizations.”
Austria and Romania on Monday joined the growing list of 15 countries that have suspended payments to UNRWA.
The Austrian Foreign Ministry said: “Until all of these allegations have been clarified and the consequences drawn from them are clear, Austria, in coordination with international partners, will temporarily suspend all further payments to UNRWA.”
Thirteen other countries have issued similar declarations: Australia, Canada, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Those declarations if not rescinded are expected to severely cripple the agency, which provides services to 5.9 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, east Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
At issue are the countries’ pledges toward the agency’s 2024 budget, which is expected to top $1.6 billion. At stake already are some $363 million in pledges.
UNRWA, which is already challenged by meeting the humanitarian needs of Palestinians impacted by the Gaza war, the Syrian civil war, and the economic crisis in Lebanon, has said it might not be able to provide basic vital services past February unless the donors rescind the monetary suspensions.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry called on more donor countries to suspend funding to UNRWA, which it said on Monday was “a front for Hamas.”
It has long been argued that UNRWA is associated with incitement against Israel and terrorist activity. UNRWA has denied those claims.
IDF soldiers in Gaza have reported finding weapons in facilities associated with UNRWA and said Hamas was able to expropriate the agency’s humanitarian aid.
On Monday, the Foreign Ministry tweeted that there are “reports of two Israeli hostages being imprisoned in the home of a UNRWA teacher.”
It also said some “300 UNRWA employees” had “praised the October 7th massacre.”
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