Israel will try to prevent the UN agency for Palestinian refugees from working in Gaza after the war, a minister warned Saturday, after accusing some UNRWA staff members of participating in Hamas’ October 7 attack.
Israel aimed to ensure that “UNRWA will not be a part of the day after,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X, formerly Twitter, adding that he would seek backing from the US, EU, and other major donors to the agency.
On Saturday, Palestinian militant group Hamas condemned Israeli “threats” against UNRWA, urging the UN and other international organizations not to “cave in to the threats and blackmail”.
UNRWA announced Friday that it has fired numerous staff accused by Israel of participating in Hamas’ extraordinary October 7 attack, leading the United States to freeze key financing.
Philippe Lazzarini, the agency’s chairman, has promised to make “accountable, including through criminal prosecution,” any UNRWA employee proven to have participated in terrorist acts.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres promised to conduct a “urgent and comprehensive independent review of UNRWA” in reaction to the firings, according to his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
The US State Department announced that it has “temporarily paused additional funding” for the agency while it evaluated the charges and the UN’s plan to resolve issues.
“Twelve employees may have been involved,” it said.
Australia and Canada also announced that they had terminated financing for the organization.
Israel’s continuous bombardment and siege of Gaza began shortly after Hamas’ unprecedented October 7 strikes, which killed around 1,140 people in Israel, the majority of them were civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli data.
Militants also took approximately 250 hostages, and Israel claims about 132 of them are still in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives.
Israel has sworn to smash Hamas, and Gaza’s health ministry reports that the Israeli military onslaught has killed at least 26,083 individuals, with women and children accounting for almost 70% of the total.