Nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in Oct. 7 attack, UN investigation reveals

Nine staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) may have been involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, and their employment will be terminated, the United Nations said on Monday.

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

The investigation was carried out by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) in allegations that 19 UNRWA members of UNRWA staff were involved in the October 7 attacks in Israel. The report is confidential and will not be made public, according to the Office of the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan called the investigation a "disgrace" and "too little too late," in response to the outcome of the investigation. 

"The investigation ignored the thousands of agency employees involved in Hamas terrorism and the extent of their involvement. Israel has provided the UN with precise details of over a hundred UNRWA employees who are members of the terrorist organization Hamas," Erdan said in a statement.

"And as if that weren't enough—the Secretary-General recently chose to award UNRWA-Gaza the UN Secretary-General's Award for 2023," he stated. 

He then called on Lazzarini to resign and for UNRWA to be shut down. Erdan called on Israel to shut UNRWA down, declare it a terrorist organization, and to expel its leaders from the state.

UNRWA Commissioner-General issues a statement

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote in a statement issued Monday, “The allegations were brought to the Agency’s attention in January.  In close consultation with the United Nations Secretary-General (SG), I immediately terminated the contracts of the staff in question, in the interest of the Agency, while the SG tasked OIOS to launch an investigation.  Additional allegations were brought to our attention in March and April and the concerned staff were added to the OIOS investigation," 

Of the 19 under investigation, in one case, there was no evidence that the individual was involved in the October 7 attacks and has rejoined UNRWA, Lazzarini stated. 

In nine other cases, there was insufficient evidence to definitively support the allegations that these staff members were involved, and their investigation has been closed. 

OIOS investigations generally use testimonial, documentary, electronic, physical, and forensic evidence. It is usually conducted directly by OIOS investigators under OIOS supervision and is handled in order to preserve the "integrity of the evidence, according to the Office of the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. 

In response to the findings, the Simon Wiesenthal Center reiterated its call for "the closure of UNRWA and the creation of a new agency to provide for the humanitarian and educational needs of the Palestinian people, free from complicity in antisemitic activity."

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC Associate Dean said that defunding UNRWA is long overdue, citing credible evidence of the involvement of UNRWA employees in October 7 attacks. "The moral rot of UNRWA extends to hundreds of other employees, as well as its deeply antisemitic and inciteful educational content," he added.