A monitoring group has warned that Gazans have reported that UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff are suspected of stealing and selling humanitarian aid.
UN Watch, a non-governmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, on Wednesday cited numerous reports published by Palestinians in UNRWA-related chat rooms that UNRWA staff are stealing aid and selling it for profit. It claimed those who reported it faced retaliation. Israeli and some US officials have accused UNRWA of posing as an aid organization while supporting Hamas attacks on Israel.
Amid “rampant theft,” the watchdog group also alleged that UNRWA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini was “turning a blind eye” to serious problems in the agency’s management of aid distribution. Meanwhile, Lazzarini recently called on countries to increase direct cash aid to Gazans. That’s because “more food is available…but that doesn’t mean more food is available.”
According to UN Watch, the chat room, which the watchdog group says is full of anti-Semitic slurs and posts celebrating Iran’s attack on Israel, is run by Haitham al-Sayed, a former UNRWA official. He is said to be Mr. The watchdog group accused al-Sayed of hiding a UNRWA map denying the existence of Israel in 2016 while UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was holding a press conference at a UN-funded school. He noted that he was expelled from UNRWA for publicly criticizing the agency. agency.
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Palestinians living at the base of the wall separating the Gaza Strip and Egypt pack up tents and move to a safer area after Israeli forces capture the Rafah border crossing on May 9, 2024. (Hani Alshael/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Although Haitham al-Sayed has reportedly been fired from UNRWA, many people in the chat room are still considered key figures in the organization with influence over the senior regime,” UN Watch said. According to the watchdog group, some UNRWA officials are “frustrated by the inaction and even complicity of senior officials in these thefts” and have filed for alms in the hopes of being heard by UNRWA leaders.・He reportedly confided in Mr. Said.
On January 6, Al-Sayed posted a message sent by UNRWA staff working at an emergency shelter set up in a school in Gaza, which read in Arabic: “Displaced people in external shelters have the right to food.” “We’re not getting that,” he complained. It is not food aid, it is distributed at night and sold in front of our eyes. According to officials, about 150 bags of diapers were distributed to students at the school overnight.
The official also said that the school remained without power for more than a month after someone stole diesel fuel from the shelter, but that “the thieves were caught and reported to the principal, but to this day, the school remains without power.” We are working with them,” he said. The message also said that a “young engineer with good ethics” who was previously in charge of the school had been “suspected of embezzlement” because he had stopped “night management” from stealing from the store after dark. “He was arbitrarily transferred.”
UNRWA officials said the female teacher in charge of the morning “did not take any steps to stop these crimes until they suspected that she was complicit in the crimes. And unfortunately, tonight… , [the] Managers were involved in and supported operations, so it was very easy to transfer anyone you wanted on suspicion of embezzlement. ”
Damage to a UNRWA school in Nuseyrat camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, May 5, 2024. (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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According to a screenshot of the telegram message published by UN Watch, Dr. Izzat Shatat, a member of the chat room group, said: “The school warehouse manager has just come with 50 cartons of food and has sent them to the UNRWA school. It was distributed and sold.” It costs the merchant 350 shekels per carton, or the equivalent of $100. ”
“How did he remove so many cartons? Where is the administration on this?” Shattat asked.
A Palestinian carries flour received in an area where UNRWA distributes aid in Rafah, January 28, 2024. (Abed Zagout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
On February 20, another UNRWA employee, Mohamed Musa Al-Sawali, witnessed some UNRWA staff stealing aid supplies and heard others hoarding aid in their homes. I talked about it in the chat room. He claimed that “80% of shelter employees have no morals or decency,” and said that one of the shelter directors’ family members was arrested for aiding and abetting video theft.
“When will the schools, especially the directors of the UNRWA Center at Rafah Preparatory Girls School B, stop stealing food and essentials from the displaced?” another group member wrote on March 1. .
UN Watch detailed how on March 22, “a heated discussion erupted in chat rooms, with some UNRWA staff accusing others of not giving them access to medicine cabinets.”
One member said, “I personally knew some workers from past wars and believed they were good people, but their hearts were evil. “There were people who committed theft on a daily basis. This became clear during this war.” There were many, some of which were documented with photos, videos, and audio. ”
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“Shelter workers stole from under the shelter and sold it, district officials rummaged through aid boxes and stole items, and their brothers sold items to the poor,” said another. In a March 8 post, he complained about rampant theft and added: “Corruption is rampant.”
