UN relief agency disputes Israeli reports of workers’ involvement in attacks

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari on Tuesday said “over 450” United Nations Relief and Works Agency contractors were involved in Hamas’ war against Israel. “This is systematic,” he said. “There is no claiming: ‘We didn’t know.’” The IDF said the UNRWA workers had been involved in the Oct. 7 attacks, which killed roughly 1,200 Israelis, and are operatives for the Hamas terrorist organization.

Does Israel have any proof of this? The Israel Defense Forces on Monday released audio from a phone call that it said came from a UNRWA teacher. The IDF said the call involved the teacher bragging about capturing female captives from Israel. The same day, Israel released photos of UNRWA workers it claimed had participated in the Oct. 7 attack.

Has UNRWA responded to the accusations? On Monday, the UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini asked the United Nations General Assembly for more money. He said the agency’s donors were being inundated with misinformation “designed to foster distrust and tarnish the reputation of the agency.” He later told reporters that a yet-unpublished UN report had documented the experiences of people detained by Israeli forces. The agency “heard stories of people being systematically humiliated” and verbally and psychologically abused, he said.

What else has the organization said about Israeli claims? In January, the UNRWA said it had terminated its contracts with several workers amid accusations they had been involved in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. In that statement, the UNRWA said it condemned Hamas’ attack on Israel. That same day, the U.S. State Department said it was pausing its funding for the UNRWA amid those accusations.

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Muncy’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about how one family in Israel is trying to get through the war.