Israel’s targeting of UNRWA workers, an age-old pattern, explained

An Israeli document on Monday levelled allegations against a dozen United Nations employees, claiming they played a role in Hamas' October 7 incursion into Israel that killed 1,200 Israelis while 240 were taken alive as captives.

Allegedly, seven people participated in the incursion into Israel; one participated in a kidnapping, while another helped to steal a soldier's body.

However, last Friday, the same day as the UN's top judicial body issued an interim ruling regarding accusations of genocide against Israel, the Middle Eastern country also brought forward allegations against The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Two Western officials told the New York Times that they were briefed on details but "had not been able to verify the details."

Israel's allegations led to more than 10 Western nations putting a freeze on vital funding providing critical services, including education, refuge and food security to Palestinians amid the onslaught in Gaza that has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians - largely women and children.

The cuts to funding stand at $363 million of UNRWA's $1.6 billion budget.

UNRWA has said if funding stops it will not be able to continue operations in Gaza and the region beyond the end of February, a threat reportedly considered to be “the gravest in its history because it comes at a time of crisis for Gaza”

At least 85 percent of Gaza's population is displaced amid acute shortages of food, potable water, and medicine, while over half of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.

Israeli documents allege around 190 UNRWA staff members, including the likes of teachers, have also participated in the resistance as Hamas or Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters.

Palestinians insist Israel is seeking to sully the UNRWA's reputation. At the same time, the agency has taken swift action, sacking nine accused staff members for "the abhorrent alleged acts" amid an ongoing investigation.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has met with the head of the agency's internal investigations to deal with the issue as "swiftly and as efficiently as possible."

After Hamas' October 7 attack, Israelis launched a barrage of heavy airstrikes on the besieged enclave of Gaza.

What the document says

On Monday Israel released a dossier that the Associated Press and the New York Times have reviewed.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the purported evidence is linked to documents seized from dead fighters and "interrogations of captured Hamas fighters." However, the WSJ did not explain how Israel historically relies upon torture techniques to gain confessions - something previously reported by Haaretz.

According to the Israeli document, 12 people are listed for their alleged roles in the attack and photos, something that the Associated Press said "could not be independently confirmed."

Of the 12 alleged participants, nine are said to be teachers and one, a social worker, while seven employees allegedly crossed into Israel on the day of the attacks.

Another person is accused of participating in the kidnapping, another in the abduction of the body of a dead soldier and three others Israel claims were involved in the attacks.

The report claimed one took up arms with the use of an anti-tank missile before the attack, while another took photos of a woman hostage. Israel alleges ten people held ties to Hamas and one to PIJ.

The document says two out of the alleged 12 involved have been killed, while the UN said one individual is in the process of being identified.

An unnamed Israeli official told Reuters the 190 mentioned in the dossier were alleged fighters, while around 10 percent of UNRWA staff allegedly held ties to resistance groups.

Israel's evidence

Like other publications, the Associated Press said Israel's allegations "could not be independently confirmed."

However, Israel claims its alleged evidence is based on mobile phone data focussing on movements inside Israel on the day of the incursion.

It allegedly includes calls from inside Gaza to discuss the Hamas attacks and text communications calling on UNRWA staff to allegedly report to specific locations on October 7, claiming one staffer was to report with rocket-propelled grenades stored in his home.

Several unnamed Western officials cited by the The New York Times say Israel has yet to prove the veracity of its claims, although the US calls them "credible enough to warrant suspending aid."

Israel and UNRWA

Numerous reports point to a longstanding legacy of friction between UNRWA and Israel.

During President Donald Trump's mandate, the United States cut funding to the UN agency amid its pressure on Palestinian leaders to push back against demands for refugees to be allowed to return to Israel.

Israel considers UNRWA an "obstacle" to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

In 1948, Zionist militias forcibly displaced some 750,000 Palestinians and killed 15,000 Palestinians to establish the State of Israel. The violent incursion became known as the Nakba or catastrophe, paving the way for the creation of UNRWA by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 302 in 1949.

Over its history, the agency bolstered its commitment to refugees and their "welfare" and "human development" of what it says are four generations of Palestine refugees "who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 War."

Today, it says almost six million Palestinians are eligible for its services in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem in Syria and Lebanon.

Since the Nakba, Israel has denied the right of Palestinians to return to their home since their forced explosion, despite its membership at the UN being conditional on the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands.

Historic tensions

Israel’s allegations against UNRWA are not new, according to several reports.

Israel has claimed Hamas uses the agency facilities for weapons storage and as the site to launch attacks although has not been able to substantiate the claim which UNRWA denies. The agency insists it has numerous policies to avoid such practices of abuse and malpractice.

Israel also has a history of targeting humanitarian workers who they have alleged ties to terrorism.

In 2016, Mohammad El Halabi was arrested and accused by the Israel Security Agency or Shin Bet of transferring $50 million to Hamas.

U.N. experts said during his pretrial detention spanning six years, he allegedly experienced "solitary confinement, alleged ill-treatment that may amount to torture and coercion to provide a confession."

The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, Ms Francesca Albanese, signed the document, among others.

It described El Halabi's 12-year prison sentence as based on "deeply flawed proceedings and egregious violations of the right to a fair trial, including the lack of evidence against him presented in open court, the extensive use of secret evidence, closed-door hearings, restricted communication with his lawyer, severe restrictions on the lawyer for the preparation of his defence, and the failure to try him without undue delay."