9 UNRWA staffers may have joined in Oct. 7 massacre

(JNS) — The United Nations announced Aug. 5 that nine staff members of the scandal-plagued UNRWA organization “may have been involved” in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel, as its internal investigation into Israeli allegations came to a close.

The U.N. Internal Oversight Services handled the months-long fact-finding investigation in the wake of Jerusalem’s stunning allegations that a number of UNRWA employees had taken part in the atrocities of Oct. 7. The contention had led to 16 countries suspending assistance to UNRWA, the U.N.’s Palestinian-only aid and social-services agency, which has long faced criticism of direct ties to Gazan terror groups and incitement to violence in its schools.

All countries except the United States have since resumed their funding to UNRWA.

OIOS announced that it had investigated claims against 19 UNRWA staffers, dismissing 10 of them, including nine for insufficient evidence and one for no evidence. 

“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 United Nations wrote in a statement. “The employment of these individuals will be terminated in the interests of the Agency.”

Neither OIOS nor the United Nations as a whole has the authority to levy criminal charges “but can impose disciplinary sanctions in response to wrongdoing or take other administrative measures to ensure smooth functioning of the organization,” according to a U.N. statement.

Israel originally laid out accusations against a dozen UNRWA staffers with the number ticking upwards over time. OIOS commenced an investigation on Jan. 29—three days after UNRWA first received relevant information from Israeli authorities. UNRWA announced at the time that it had terminated the employment of all those accused, though at least one was deceased at that point.

Last month, Israel sent an additional list to UNRWA with the names of 108 employees it says have ties to terror groups, though they were not a part of the OIOS investigation.

“The U.N. investigation, which focused solely on 19 UNRWA employees, is a disgrace,” Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, wrote in a statement. “It is too little, too late—ignoring thousands of agency employees involved to various degrees in Hamas’s terror activities.”

The United Nations said on Monday that OIOS investigators met with Israeli officials in Israel “to receive and review information held by Israeli authorities,” including an inter-agency team comprising senior and other officials from various government ministries.

OIOS asserted that Israel did not physically turn over any of the information it collected to support its allegations, so it “was not able to independently authenticate most of the information provided to it,” though it used that information to help “inform the investigation.”

It is unclear at this stage why OIOS needed all that information physically turned over to it to independently assess its authenticity.

The OIOS staff also visited Amman “to obtain and review information held by UNRWA relevant to the investigation, including on UNRWA staff and on UNRWA operations.”

Additionally, it reviewed emails, information on UNRWA vehicles, and other information and data, as well as reached out to other unspecified countries for additional information related to the investigation.

Significantly, OIOS “did not meet with subject UNRWA staff and possible corroborating witnesses to conduct interviews and take statements” due to what is said were safety and security concerns.

It did, at least in some cases, request and secure recorded video statements from the accused to a series of designated questions. In one case, an accused staffer “on his own volition provided a video recording offering a general denial of the allegations raised against him.”

A copy of the OIOS report is in the hands of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, including a summary of findings and conclusions. The report will not be made public, according to a U.N. statement, though it could be provided to member states upon request, likely in redacted form.

‘A new level of low’

Erdan said the United Nations “still refuses to recognize the reality of its agency” and criticized Guterres for bestowing UNRWA’s Gaza bureau with a prestigious 2023 award.

“The Secretary General must resign, and UNRWA must be shut down,” Erdan wrote. “Israel should act swiftly to outlaw UNRWA, declare it a terrorist organization, expel its leaders from Israel and deny them further entry.”

Legislation is working its way through the Knesset, which, if passed, would outlaw UNRWA’s activities in Jerusalem and declare it a terror organization, along with stripping U.N. employees in Israel from their diplomatic privileges and immunities.

JNS sought comment from the Israeli foreign ministry regarding Monday’s U.N. announcement.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, said the results of the OIOS investigation dispeled criticism from some that Israel was making up the allegations. In a statement on X, he said the investigation concluded that the nine UNRWA workers “might have taken part in the raping, killing and slaughtering of Israelis and Israeli communities during the Oct. 7 massacre.”

“UNRWA, 9 of your employees might have participated in the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” Shoshani tweeted. “And no, this isn’t evidence ‘fabricated’ by us. This is straight from the UN itself.”

Shosani added that UNRWA “has officially stooped to a new level of low, and it is time that the world sees your true face.”