On Friday, January 26, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said that it had fired a number of staff members who Israel claimed had been involved in Hamas’ historic attack on October 7.
The US also stopped providing vital financing to the agency after the move.
According to UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, the decision was made “to protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance.”
He declared, “Any UNRWA employee involved in acts of terror will face consequences, including criminal prosecution.”
According to UNRWA’s website, the United States was the organization’s largest bilateral donor in 2022, giving more than $340 million.
According to Lazzarini, information regarding the staff members’ purported involvement had come from Israeli authorities.
According to his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “is horrified” by the allegations and “an urgent and comprehensive independent review of UNRWA will be conducted.”
The claims “extremely troubled” the US State Department, it declared. The UN’s intention to address concerns and the claims it has evaluated led to the statement that it has “temporarily paused additional funding.”
It further stated that twelve workers “may have been involved.”
About 1,140 people died in Israel as a result of the historic Hamas strike on October 7. The victims were primarily civilians.
Moreover, militias took roughly 250 captives. About 132 of them, according to Israel, are still in Gaza, along with the corpses of at least 28 deceased prisoners.
CLICK HERE TO COMMENT
Leave a Reply