UN chief to meet with major UNRWA donors, calls for ‘swift’ probe into Oct. 7 claims

Antonio Guterres wants to ‘at least guarantee continuity of UNRWA’s operations,’ says spokesperson

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a Security Council meeting regarding the Israel-Hamas war at the UN headquarters in New York on January 23, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/AFP)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a Security Council meeting regarding the Israel-Hamas war at the UN headquarters in New York on January 23, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/AFP)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will meet Tuesday with key donors to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees after 12 of its staff were accused by Israel of involvement in the October 7 attacks, his spokesman said.

Several countries, including the United States, France, Britain, Germany and Japan, have announced the suspension of further funding to the agency pending an investigation into the claims.

Guterres has “been engaging with the UNRWA leadership and donors to UNRWA,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Monday.

Guterres met earlier with the head of internal UN investigations to ensure that the inquiry into accusations that UNRWA staff took part in Hamas’s October 7 massacre “will be done swiftly and as efficiently as possible,” Dujarric said.

“The secretary-general is personally horrified by the accusations against employees of UNRWA,” Guterres’s spokesman said.

“But his message to donors — especially those who have suspended their contributions — is to at least guarantee the continuity of UNRWA’s operations, as we have tens of thousands of dedicated staff working throughout the region.”

Displaced Palestinians receive food aid at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) center in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 28, 2024, (AFP)

Guterres already met with Washington’s representative to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Monday, and “he will be hosting a meeting here in New York with the major donors for UNRWA (Tuesday) afternoon here,” Dujarric said.

“The secretary-general has also been engaging with the UNRWA leadership and donors to UNRWA, as well as regional leaders, such as King Abdullah of Jordan, whom he spoke to a short while ago, and President (Abdel Fattah) al-Sisi of Egypt.”

UNRWA said it has acted promptly over allegations but that cuts in funding will affect ordinary Palestinians.

The accusations against UNRWA are the latest in a long line of Israeli complaints about the UN agency, such as that it allows anti-Israeli incitement to be taught in its hundreds of schools and that some of its staff collaborate with Hamas. The Trump administration suspended funding to the agency in 2018, but US President Joe Biden restored it.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that intel Jerusalem shared with the US indicated that of the roughly 12,000 Gazan employees of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, some 1,200 have ties to either Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The Commissioner-General of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the UNRWA headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, December 6, 2023. (AP/Bilal Hussein)

The report further stated that around 50% of the UN agency’s employees in Gaza have at least one close relative with ties to the terror groups.

The Associated Press said it saw an Israeli document alleging that at least 190 UNRWA workers were themselves Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives, without providing evidence. It was not clear whether it was the same document.

Last week, Lazzarini said he would appoint an independent entity to look into the claims — both “what is true or untrue” and “what is politically motivated.”

On Monday, a spokesperson for the agency said that if funding is not restored, it will not be able to continue operations in Gaza and across the region beyond the end of February.

A worker rests as displaced Palestinians receive food aid at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) center in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 28, 2024. (AFP)

There are today 58 designated refugee camps where UNRWA operates, in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Unlike most war refugees around the world, the agency recognizes as refugees descendants of those displaced in 1948 amid Israel’s War of Independence, regardless of their circumstances.

Critics allege this has fostered and encouraged a decades-long culture of dependence and victimhood among Palestinians.

In the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where 1.5 million displaced people have taken refuge, Palestinians told AFP that the support they received from the agency amounted to a lifeline.

Israel has vowed to stop the agency’s work in Gaza after the war.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Monday he had cancelled a meeting with Lazzarini scheduled for later in the week.

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