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Associated Press

Israel’s allegations that 12 employees of a United Nations agency were involved in Hamas’ October 7 attack have led several Western countries to cut off funding and reignited debate over Gaza’s biggest humanitarian aid provider.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, employs thousands of staffers and provides vital aid and services to millions of people across the Middle East.
In Gaza, it has been the main supplier of food, water and shelter to civilians during the war between Israel and Gaza.
Israel has long railed against the agency, accusing it of tolerating or even collaborating with Hamas and of perpetuating the 75-year-old Palestinian refugee crisis.
Israel-Gaza war: UN agency under fire after October 7 involvement claims
The Israeli government has accused Hamas and other militant groups of siphoning off aid and using UN facilities for military purposes.
UNRWA denies those allegations and says it took swift action against the employees accused of taking part in the attack.
The United States and eight other Western nations that together provided more than half of UNRWA’s budget in 2022 nevertheless suspended their funding to the agency.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, or 87 per cent of the population, rely on UNRWA services that would be scaled back as soon as February if the money is not restored.

What in UNRWA and why was it created?
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East was established to provide aid to the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding the country’s creation.
The Palestinians say the refugees and their descendants, who now number nearly 6 million across the Middle East, have the right to return to their homes.
Israel has refused, because if the right of return were to be fully implemented it would result in a Palestinian majority inside its borders. The fate of the refugees and their descendants was among the thorniest issues in the peace process, which ground to a halt in 2009.
UNRWA operates schools, health clinics, infrastructure projects and aid programmes in refugee camps that now resemble dense urban neighbourhoods in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. It has 13,000 employees in Gaza alone, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
In Gaza, where some 85 per cent of the territory’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, over 1 million are sheltering in UNRWA schools and other facilities.

What do Israel and other critics say about UNRWA?
Israel accuses UNRWA of turning a blind eye as Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, siphons off aid intended for civilians and fights from in and around UN facilities, several of which have been struck during the war.
It also has exposed Hamas tunnels running next to or under UNRWA facilities and accuses the agency of teaching hatred of Israel in its schools.
UNRWA denies those allegations. It says it has no links to Hamas or to any other militant groups, and that it thoroughly investigates any allegations of wrongdoing and holds staff accountable. It says it shares lists of all of its staff with Israel and other host countries.
The 12 employees are said to have participated in the surprise October 7 attack in which Hamas fighters from Gaza overran Israel’s extensive border defences.
America is neck deep in Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza
Other militants joined in the subsequent rampage through nearby communities, which left 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians. Around 250 others, including children, were captured and dragged into Gaza.
UN chief Guterres said nine of the accused UNRWA employees were immediately terminated, one was confirmed dead and the other two still need to be identified. He said all would be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.
Neither the details of the allegations nor the evidence supporting them has been made public.
UNRWA has condemned the October 7 attack and called for all the hostages to be freed. Earlier this month, before the latest allegations, UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini announced an external review of the agency to determine which accusations are “true or untrue” and “what is politically motivated”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the agency should be shut down. But his government has continued to allow UNRWA to operate in the West Bank and Gaza, where it provides basic services that might otherwise be the responsibility of Israel as the occupying power.
No other entity would be able to quickly fill the void if UNRWA ceased operations.




What do the funding cuts mean for Gaza?
The United States, which was the first country to suspend funding, is the biggest donor to UNRWA, providing it with US$340 million in 2022. The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland have also suspended aid.
The nine countries together provided nearly 60 per cent of UNRWA’s budget in 2022. It was not immediately clear when or how the suspension of aid would affect the agency’s day-to-day operations.
Norway and Ireland said they would continue funding UNRWA, while other donors have not yet made a decision.
Israel vows to fight Hamas to Gaza’s southern border, fuelling tension with Egypt
The war has plunged Gaza into a severe humanitarian crisis. One in four Palestinians in the territory faces starvation, according to UN officials, who say aid operations are hampered by the fighting and Israeli restrictions.
“Our humanitarian operation, on which 2 million people depend as a lifeline in Gaza, is collapsing,” Lazzarini posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
He expressed shock that countries would suspend aid “based on alleged behaviour of a few individuals and as the war continues, needs are deepening & famine looms”.
The war has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, most women and children, and wounded more than 64,400 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its toll but says most of those killed were women and children.
The death toll includes more than 150 UNWRA employees, the most aid workers the UN has lost in a single conflict.


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Israel-Gaza war

What is UNRWA, the main aid provider in Gaza that Israel accuses of militant links?

Palestinians arrive in the southern Gaza town of Rafah after fleeing an Israeli ground and air offensive in the nearby city of Khan Younis. Photo: AP

Displaced Palestinians receive food aid at the UNRWA centre in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: AFP

The aftermath of the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel. File photo: Reuters

Israel-Gaza war: UN agency under fire after October 7 involvement claims

A truck, marked with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) logo, crosses into Egypt from Gaza, at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on November 27, 2023. Photo: Reuters

Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz has said UNRWA “must be replaced with agencies dedicated to genuine peace and development” in the rebuilding of Gaza. Photo: AFP

Palestinians carry bags of flour they grabbed from an aid truck near an Israeli checkpoint, as Gaza residents face crisis levels of hunger, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has been asked to resign over allegations 12 staff members were accused of taking part in the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. Photo: AFP

Protesters lift portraits of Israelis held hostage by Hamas militants in Gaza since October 7, during a rally demanding their release outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea, north of Tel Aviv, on Saturday. Photo: AFP

People wait for food relief in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on December 31, 2023. Photo: Xinhua

Internally displaced Palestinians move past Israeli tanks as they head towards Rafah camps near the Egyptian border, southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Israel’s Netanyahu defiant after UN court ruling as deaths in Gaza offensive continue

An Israeli soldier gestures to the camera as he rides in a tank near the Israel-Gaza border on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

Pro-Palestinian supporters celebrate in the embassy of Palestine in Pretoria on Friday after watching the International Court of Justice delivering its decision on the case against Israel brought by South Africa. Photo: AFP

Palestinians fleeing Khan Younis move towards Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

A Palestinian woman cries as she sits next to her girl at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis on Monday. Photo: AP

Israel vows to fight Hamas all the way to Gaza’s southern border. That’s fuelling tension with Egypt

The border fence with Egypt in Rafah, southern Gaza. Photo: AP

A makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah near the border with Egypt in southern Gaza. Photo: AFP

Palestinians look at Egyptian soldiers through the border fence with Egypt, in Rafah, southern Gaza. Photo: AP

Israeli troops operating in southern Gaza. Photo: Israel Defence Forces via Xinhua

Doomsday Clock remains at 90 seconds to midnight amid wars in Gaza, Ukraine

The Doomsday Clock reads “90 seconds to midnight”, a decision made by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, during an announcement in Washington on Tuesday. Photo: Hastings Group Media via AFP

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Israel has alleged that a dozen UNRWA staff took part in Hamas’ October 7 attack
UN secretary general vows action as several key donor countries pause funding


Several countries have paused funding for the UNRWA refugee agency after allegations by Israel that a dozen of its 13,000 staff in Gaza were involved in the October 7 rampage.


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.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Israel has alleged that a dozen UNRWA staff took part in Hamas’ October 7 attack UN secretary general vows action as several key donor countries pause funding

Israel has alleged that a dozen UNRWA staff took part in Hamas’ October 7 attack

UN secretary general vows action as several key donor countries pause funding