CNN
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A United Nations investigation has discovered that 9 workers from its essential company for Palestinian humanitarian aid, UNWRA, “might have” been concerned within the October 7 assault and now not work on the company.
UNRWA has 14,000 employees members in Gaza.
The investigation was launched in January after Israel accused some UNRWA workers of collaborating within the assault that left 1,200 folks in Israel lifeless. UN investigators weren’t capable of converse with the accused, although some accused responded to written questions.
Some on the 9 have been fired in January, when Israel made its allegations. Others have been fired after new assertions have been made this spring, Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the UN Reduction and Works Company for Palestine Refugees within the Close to East (UNRWA), instructed CNN.
The UN’s Workplace of Inner Oversight Companies (OIOS) investigated a complete of 19 workers who have been accused by Israel of participation within the assault.
“The proof obtained by OIOS indicated that the UNRWA employees members might have been concerned within the armed assaults of seven October 2023,” OIOS mentioned in a press release. In 9 different instances, OIOS mentioned that the proof was “inadequate” for the staff to be fired, however that “applicable measures shall be taken in the end.” Within the ultimate case, “no proof was obtained by OIOS to assist the allegations of the employees member’s involvement.”
In a press release on X, a spokesperson for the Israel Protection Forces (IDF), Nadav Shoshani, mentioned: “9 of your workers might need participated within the largest bloodbath of Jews because the Holocaust.”
“Your ‘aid’ company has formally stooped to a brand new stage of low, and it’s time that the world sees your true face.”
UNRWA was based by the UN a 12 months after the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, which marked the creation of Israel and the displacement of greater than 700,000 Palestinians from their houses in an occasion recognized by Palestinians because the Nakba (disaster).
The company gives a variety of assist and providers to Palestinian refugees and their descendants. It’s a main supply of employment for the refugees, who make up most of its greater than 30,000 workers throughout the Center East, and has consultant places of work in New York, Geneva and Brussels.
In a press release on Monday, UNRWA Commissioner-Common Philippe Lazzarini mentioned that his company’s “precedence is to proceed lifesaving and demanding providers for Palestine Refugees in Gaza and throughout the area, particularly within the face of the continuing conflict, the instability and danger of regional escalation.”
“UNRWA is dedicated to proceed upholding the elemental ideas and values of the United Nations, together with the humanitarian precept of neutrality, and to making sure that every one its employees abide by the Company’s coverage on exterior and political actions.”
The Israeli authorities in January accused some UNRWA employees members of involvement within the October 7 assaults. The Israeli authorities didn’t make their proof public, nor – in response to UNRWA – did they share it with UNRWA. Nonetheless, UNWRA in January mentioned that it had terminated the accused workers’ contracts.
The top of the IDF’s Israel Protection Forces’ Navy Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, met with senior US officers in January to share his nation’s intelligence on the accused. “We gave them particular names and which organizations they’re affiliated with, whether or not Hamas or PIJ or others, and what precisely they did on October seventh. We confirmed them that we had stable intelligence from distinction sources,” an Israeli official instructed CNN on the time.
Israel in February launched some particulars about 12 workers whom it accused, together with their names, pictures and alleged roles with Hamas. The extra particulars additionally included screengrabs of what Israel mentioned have been two UNWRA workers – a social employee and math trainer – in Israel on October 7.
The protection ministry additionally supplied ID pictures of 10 different alleged Hamas members, their positions and alleged involvement within the lethal incursion, however didn’t present any supporting proof to again up their claims. CNN couldn’t independently confirm the identification of the lads or Israel’s allegations about their involvement with Hamas.
The allegations led to a number of UNRWA’s most vital donor international locations to withdraw funding from the company. Most of these international locations have reinstated their funding. America – traditionally, UNRWA’s largest donor – has not.
Israel accused additional workers of involvement in March and April.
OIOS investigators met with Israeli officers as a part of their investigation and evaluate their intelligence. In addition they reviewed UNRWA workers’ communications and media experiences.
“Due to security considerations,” they didn’t meet with the accused UNRWA employees or corroborating witnesses.
“In some instances, nevertheless, OIOS was capable of request and safe videorecorded statements from the themes who responded to a collection of set questions addressing the allegations of their involvement within the armed assaults of seven October 2023,” the UN mentioned in a press release.
