The Israeli Foreign Ministry informed the UN last week that 100 “terrorist operatives” had been identified as employees of UNRWA, the UN relief agency for the Palestinian people.
Israel has called on the UN to fire these officials without delay.
The letter from Israeli Ambassador Amir Weisbrod to UNRWA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini was sent on July 4 but was not made public until Thursday, and was reported by Fox News and German TV. Build Obtained copy. Build was I’m very upset. They learn that German funds may have been used to fund terrorists.
In the letter, Weissbrod said: I got it. The presence of Hamas operatives among UNRWA staff has been a “recurring concern” for Israeli authorities. In January, the United States and several other countries Paused Israel suspended funding to UNRWA after it accused 12 UNRWA staff of active participation in the October 7 Hamas atrocity.
Most of these countries ended up Resuming Israel has suspended funding to UNRWA, citing the dire need of humanitarian aid from Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and an Israeli letter to the UN suggests that resuming funding would have been a huge mistake, as UNRWA staff in Gaza are still riddled with terrorists.
“In recent months, Israel has discovered that hundreds of terrorists, members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), are employed by UNRWA in the Gaza Strip, some of whom hold senior positions in UNRWA and Hamas,” Weisbrod told Lazzarini.
The Israeli ambassador attached a document listing the names and identities of 100 “terrorist operatives currently employed by UNRWA’s Gaza branch.”
Weisbrod said the list was “only a small portion” of Hamas and PIJ operatives working for UNRWA, and promised to release more in the future, vowing to send it both to Lazzarini and to UNRWA’s donors.
“Israel expects you and your organization to immediately terminate the employment of any Hamas or PIJ members,” Weisbrod wrote, “whose activities at UNRWA pose a security risk to Israel and violate the principle of neutrality as noted in Mr. Colonna’s report.”
Fox News reported that Lazzarini claimed Israel was horrified to learn that UNRWA staff had been involved in some of the worst atrocities in human history, and that it was fairly quick to fire those it identified.
“UNRWA staff involved in terrorist acts will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution,” Lazzarini vowed in January.
The UNRWA chief’s tone has since changed. At a June 24 meeting of the UNRWA Advisory Board in Geneva, Lazzarini complained that Israel was making “a concerted effort to dismantle UNRWA with the aim of changing the existing political framework for peace in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
“The UN is being targeted precisely because of its role as the defender of the rights of Palestinian refugees and because it represents an international commitment to a political solution,” he charged.
“Israel has long criticized UNRWA’s mission and is now calling for an end to UNRWA’s activities, denying it its status as a UN agency supported by the overwhelming majority of member states,” he said.
“If we do not fight back, other UN agencies and international organisations will do so next, further weakening our multilateral system,” he warned.
Lazzarini claimed he had fully addressed “serious allegations that several UNRWA staff in the Gaza Strip were involved in the abhorrent attack on Israel on October 7,” but if Israel’s allegations are proven, Weisbrod’s letter and accompanying documents would completely destroy that claim.
of Build The article on the Israeli letter encourages the German government to ask tough questions about UNRWA’s funding and how it is spent. Build German-Israeli hostage Shani Luke’s body found discovered At a UNRWA facility in October.
Luke, 23, was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from the Nova music festival on October 7, tortured by her captors and paraded around Gaza like a trophy. Her body was Recovered He was buried in May by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a concrete tunnel constructed beneath the UNRWA compound, along with the bodies of two other victims of the Nova kidnapping.
of Jerusalem Post report Last week, more than 100 Israelis joined a lawsuit accusing UNRWA of knowingly employing Hamas terrorists and contributing to genocide by distributing terrorist propaganda to Palestinian children.
“Hamas officials have controlled UNRWA’s education system and its staff union. UNRWA has actively cooperated in establishing administrative systems and centers, and Hamas headquarters have been located within UNRWA schools and clinics, where missile launchers have been installed in violation of international law,” the report said. Jerusalem Post Said.
The lawsuit accuses the UN agency of transferring at least $1 billion to Hamas over several years, including funds the terrorists used to buy weapons for the Oct. 7 rape, kidnapping and murder.
In response to the lawsuit, UNRWA argued that “like all United Nations employees, it enjoys immunity from legal action.”
Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch Said He said Thursday that Weisbrod’s letter and list of 100 terrorist operatives should be the final blow for UNRWA.
Neuer told Lazzarini that Fatih Al-Sharif, head of the UNRWA teachers’ union, Member of Hamas Lazzarini argued that countries that resumed funding for UNRWA after the last terrorist attack “should not pledge a single penny” until all terrorists among UNRWA’s staff have been fired.
As Neuer noted, UNRWA’s 2024 pledging conference held Tomorrow in New York.
