The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for the Palestinians (UNRWA) said on Friday that it has opened an investigation into officials suspected of involvement in the October 7 attacks in Israel by Hamas and that it has cut ties with those officials.
“Israeli authorities provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA officials in the horrific attacks on Israel on October 7,” said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner General.
“To protect the agency’s ability to provide humanitarian assistance, I have made the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these employees and launch an investigation to establish the truth without delay.”
UNRWA, created in 1949 after the first Arab-Israeli war, provides services including education, primary health care and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
UNRWA has provided aid and used its facilities to shelter people who fled shelling and a ground offensive launched by Israel in Gaza following the October 7 attacks, in which, according to Israel, 1,200 people were killed and 253 people were taken hostage.
“These shocking allegations come at a time when more than 2 million people in Gaza depend on the vital assistance the agency has been providing since the start of the war,” said Lazzarini.
Israel's offensive has devastated much of the densely populated Gaza Strip and killed more than 25,000 Palestinians.
UNRWA, whose largest donors as of 2022 are the United States, Germany, the European Union and Sweden, has repeatedly stated that its ability to provide humanitarian assistance to the population of Gaza is on the verge of collapse.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber)
Source: CNN Brasil
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