Key Points
- Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has called for UNRWA's head to quit and the agency to be replaced in Gaza.
- Several countries have halted UNRWA donations following accusations that staff participated in the 7 October attack.
- The UN has said the decision to pause funding could have dire humanitarian consequences.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres vowed on Sunday that "any UN employee involved in acts of terror will be held accountable" following accusations that some staff members of the Palestinian refugee agency were involved in Hamas' 7 October attacks on Israel.
However, Guterres appealed to governments to continue supporting the agency at the heart of humanitarian efforts in Gaza after nine countries announced they would pause funding.
Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz has called for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to be "replaced with agencies dedicated to genuine peace and development" in the rebuilding of Gaza after the territory's bloodiest war.
Katz has also urged more donors to suspend UNRWA funding, following announcements that countries including Australia, Germany, Finland, Canada, the US, Italy, the UK and the Netherlands would do so.
Deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq, when asked about Katz's remarks, said: "We are not responding to rhetoric. UNRWA overall had had a strong record, which we have repeatedly underscored".
UNRWA has always rejected similar accusations in the past and maintained it is a relief and humanitarian agency.
Katz also called for UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini to quit late on Saturday in response to a post by the UNRWA chief warning that the funding cuts meant the agency's operation in Gaza was close to collapse.
The UN's response to the accusations
Guterres said the UN was "taking swift action following the extremely serious allegations" and an "investigation by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) was immediately activated."
"Any UN employee involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution. The Secretariat is ready to cooperate with a competent authority able to prosecute the individuals in line with the Secretariat’s normal procedures for such cooperation," Guterres said.
"Of the 12 people implicated, nine were immediately identified and terminated" while "one is confirmed dead, and the identity of the two others is being clarified," the UN secretary-general's statement read.
Lazzarini said on Saturday that the decisions of nine countries to suspend funding were shocking, and urged them to reverse course.
"These decisions threaten our ongoing humanitarian work across the region including and especially in the Gaza Strip," he said.
"The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences," Guterres said. "But the tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalised."
"The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met."
The relationship between Israel and UNRWA
Relations between Israel and UNRWA, which have been strained for years, deteriorated further in recent days, with the UN agency
The agency said tens of thousands of displaced people had been registered at the shelter and Wednesday's tank shelling killed 13 people.
Asked about the incident, the Israeli army said a "thorough review of the operations of the forces in the vicinity is underway", adding it was examining the possibility that the strike was a "result of Hamas fire".
Lazzarini said Wednesday's bombardment was a "blatant disregard of basic rules of war", with the compound clearly marked as a UN facility and its coordinates shared with Israeli authorities.
The Israeli army is the only force known to have tanks operating in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian foreign ministry criticised what it described as an Israeli campaign against UNRWA, and Hamas condemned the termination of employee contracts "based on information derived from the Zionist enemy".
Johann Soufi, a lawyer and former director of UNRWA's legal office in Gaza, said the agency had "always had a zero-tolerance policy for violence and incitement to hatred".
"Sanctioning UNRWA, which is barely keeping the entire population of Gaza alive, for the alleged responsibility of a few employees, is tantamount to collectively punishing the Gazan population, which is living in catastrophic humanitarian conditions," he said.
The accusations against UNRWA staff came hours after and allow in more aid.
Soufi said the timing of the allegations against UNRWA "raises questions".
What is UNRWA?
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency was established in December 1949 by the United Nations General Assembly after the first Arab-Israeli conflict, which broke out immediately after Israel's creation in May 1948.
The agency is charged with supplying humanitarian aid and protection for Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, while "pending a just and lasting solution to their plight."
Palestinian refugees are "persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict," UNRWA says on its website.
UNRWA has 13,000 staffers in Gaza, nearly all of them Palestinians, and provides basic services, from medical care to education, for Palestinian families who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation.
It helps about two-thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million population and has played a pivotal aid role during the war that Israel launched to eliminate Hamas after the 7 October attacks.
Around 1,200 people were killed in the attacks on southern Israel, according to the Israeli government, with 240 taken hostage. Israel's retaliatory bombardment of Gaza has killed over 26,000, according to the Gaza health ministry, with up to 1.9 million of its 2.3 million population displaced.
The New York Times said on Saturday US-led negotiators were getting closer to an agreement under which Israel would suspend its war in Gaza for about two months in return for the release of more than 100 hostages.
Quoting unidentified US officials, it said negotiators had developed a draft agreement that would be discussed in Paris on Sunday.
UN, PLO say pausing UNRWA funding brings great risk
During weeks of Israeli bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, UNRWA has repeatedly said its capacity to render humanitarian assistance to people in Gaza is on the verge of collapse.
"Two million civilians in Gaza depend on critical aid from UNRWA for daily survival but UNRWA’s current funding will not allow it to meet all requirements to support them in February," Guterres said.
"I strongly appeal to the governments that have suspended their contributions to, at least, guarantee the continuity of UNRWA’s operations."
Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the Palestinians' umbrella political body the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), also said that cutting support to the agency brought major political and relief risks.
"We call on countries that announced the cessation of their support for UNRWA to immediately reverse their decision," he said on X.
The war between Hamas and Israel is the latest escalation in a long-standing conflict.
Hamas is a Palestinian political and military group, which has governed the Gaza Strip since the most recent elections in 2006.
Hamas’s stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state and stop the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, illegal under international law.
Hamas in its entirety is listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and seven other countries, including Australia. But the UN Assembly rejected classifying Hamas as a terrorist group in a 2018 vote.
In 2021 the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Palestinian territories dating back to 2014, including the recent attacks of both Israel and Hamas.
