No evidence of UNRWA staff links to ‘terrorist’ groups: Independent review
Al Jazeera
Report from former French foreign minister finds Israel has not backed up claims it made against refugee agency.
Israel has not presented credible evidence to support its claims that UNRWA staff were members of “terrorist” groups, an independent review for the United Nations led by a former French foreign minister has said.
The claims against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) led to a massive funding deficit as several donor countries announced cuts.
The independent review into the relief agency’s practices was also commissioned, as well as a separate investigation into the October attack itself, by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services.
The review, headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and supported by three Nordic research institutes, makes clear that Israel failed to support its claims about UNRWA staff belonging to either Hamas’s military wing or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
In January, Israel accused UNRWA staff members of abetting the October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,139 people and the capture of an unknown number of people, thought to be in excess of 200.
