According to a report, unrwa have been questionable since Israel accused 12 of its staff members of being implicated in the October 7 attacks. Reportedly, in January the u.n. office of internal oversights services formed an investigation, and a review of unrwa’s activities and neutrality is underway. According to the report, the u.n. spokesperson said the investigation had found critical areas that needed to be addressed. Reportedly, the review group will develop concrete and realistic reccomendations on how to address critical areas, the final report on unrwa will be made public on 20 April.
According to the report, Israel said unrwa will not be reformed and they will never let the agency back into Gaza. Reportedly, Israel have been compiling evidence and say 2,135 unrwa staff members representing 17% of the workforce were hamas members, of which 400 were fighters. According to the report, Israel said this is not just a case of a few bad apples, it is systemic, consistent and cannot be ignored. Reportedly, israeli officials said they faced a challenge in phasing out unrwa’s food distribution role, saying, we now have to figure out how to increase a humanitarian effort inside Gaza without providing aid through an organisation that is closely entwined to the enemy we are trying to defeat.
According to the report, Israel’s allegations led 16 donors to suspend contributions, though worried about famine some countries have restored contributions; the u.s., Germany and the uk have yet to make a decision.
Reportedly, 13,000 unrwa staff work in Gaza and 30,000 in refugee camps in Samaria, Jordan, Lebanon and elsewhere.