Canadian officials still haven't seen intelligence linking UN's Gaza aid agency with Hamas: sources

The government of Canada did not see any evidence backing up Israel's claim that staff employed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) colluded with Hamas before suspending funding to the agency, CBC News has learned.

Government sources tell CBC that Israel still has not shared evidence with Canada to substantiate its claim that 12 employees of UNRWA were involved in some capacity in the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and the affiliated group Islamic Jihad.

Around 1,200 people were killed in Israel on Oct. 7 during Hamas-led attacks, including several Canadians; Israeli officials said 253 others were taken hostage, with about 130 yet to return home. Palestinian officials say more than 27,000 people have been killed in the Israeli military response to the Hamas-led attacks.

Britain's Channel Four News earlier this week obtained a copy of a dossier that the government of Israel shared with the U.K. government, which also cut funding to UNRWA.

Channel Four reported that the dossier was only six pages long. The news service said it rehashes long-standing Israeli government complaints about UNRWA and alleges the involvement of UNRWA staff in the Oct 7 attack, but "provides no evidence" to back up Israel's explosive allegations against the agency.

Britain's Sky News also reviewed the dossier and reached a similar conclusion:

"The Israeli intelligence documents make several claims that Sky News has not seen proof of and many of the claims, even if true, do not directly implicate UNRWA," the news channel reported.

CBC News has not yet been able to review the Israeli intelligence document.

Channel Four quoted from relevant sections of the document, which is in Hebrew.

"From intelligence information, documents and identity cards seized during the course of the fighting, it is now possible to flag around 190 Hamas and PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad) terrorist operatives who serve as UNRWA employees. More than 10 UNRWA staffers took apart in the events of October 7," the paper says.

The report includes photographs of 12 UNRWA employees it claims were involved, but does not provide the information or documents it mentions to substantiate those claims, Channel Four reported.

French public broadcaster France 24 also had access to the Israeli report, which it compared to the notorious "dodgy dossier" of intelligence claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that led the U.K. government to join the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Israel has refused to provide the intelligence it says backs up its allegations, either to UNRWA or to the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the UN body assigned to investigate.

"I don't think we need to give intelligence information. This would reveal sources in the operation," Lior Haiat, a spokesperson for Israel's foreign ministry, told France 24.