Israel accuses UN agency OCHA of being biased, announces cut to staff visas

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon tells the UN Security Council that the Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is biased against Israel and that its employees are now required to undergo security vetting.

Danon asserts that Israel has uncovered “clear evidence of Hamas affiliations within OCHA’s ranks,” and says that “key employees” will not have their permits renewed, and international staff will have their visas cut to just one month.

“OCHA has long ceased to be a humanitarian body. It is a Hamas propaganda arm that operates from within UN institutions, and uses false data and inflammatory discourse to harm Israel,” Danon claims at the UNSC meeting.

Danon accuses UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher of abandoning “his sacred responsibility to act without bias” and demands that he retract his statement “that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.”

He also says that Jonathan Whittall, who heads OCHA in the Palestinian territories, must leave Israel by July 29 because of alleged bias against Israel, a decision Israel revealed on Sunday.

In response, OCHA spokeswoman Eri Kaneko says: “Any reduction of our own staff will stifle our already curtailed efforts to reach civilians across Gaza in urgent need of life-saving humanitarian aid.”