How UNRWA staff involvement in Hamas terror attacks is only the tip of iceberg

António Guterres wasn’t apathetic and lackadaisical this time. Unlike his 53 days of indifference to the gang rapes, mutilation and murder of Israeli women by Hamas brutes on October 7, 2023, the UN secretary general promised “ criminal prosecution” against any employee involved in the massacre. Within days of Israel providing a dossier to the US alleging the involvement of 12 United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) employees in the attacks, Guterres vowed on January 28, “Any UN employee involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.” The contracts of nine employees were terminated, one was confirmed dead and the identities of the remaining were being clarified, he said. Two days before his comments, the UNRWA swiftly started a probe into the employees. “The Israeli authorities have provided the UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on October 7,” said UNRWA commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini. Since January 27, as many as 11 countries have frozen funding to the UNRWA—the US, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Finland, France and Japan. Alleging that the UNRWA shelters terrorists and perpetuates their rule, Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz called for more nations to freeze funding, the dismissal of the agency’s leadership and its replacement in rebuilding Gaza.

The U.S., Canada, Finland, Australia, Italy, and the UK have stopped funding @UNRWA due to staff involvement in the October 7 massacre. I call for more nations to join in. @UNRWA's ties with Hamas, providing refuge for terrorists, and perpetuating its rule are undeniable. The…

— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) January 27, 2024

The UNRWA was established after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War with the mission to provide education, health services and financial aid to Palestinian refugees. In more than seven decades, the number of refugees registered with the agency in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon has jumped from 700,000 to 5.9 million. According to 2022 UNRWA data, of the 1.6 refugees in Gaza, 1.2 million receive emergency food and monetary aid. The organisation gets more than $1 billion in annual donations to operate its 58 refugee camps. The massive relief and humanitarian operation wouldn’t have been possible without the sustained funding by the West, which provided almost 95 per cent of the funds in 2022. In 2022, the US gave $344 million, Germany $202 million, the European Union (EU) $114 million, Sweden $61 million and Norway $34 million. In 2021, the US provided $338 million, Germany $177 million, the EU $118 million, Sweden $54 million and Japan $50 million. In 2020, Germany gave $210 million, the EU $157 million, the UK $64 million, Sweden $60 million and Japan $33 million. Tip of iceberg The agency is a lifeline for Palestinian refugees, especially during wars. According to Guterres, 87 per cent of Gaza’s population depends on UNRWA’s aid. In the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, the agency provided medicines and medical supplies worth $ 6.2 million, 19 million litres of water, 2.7 million units of biscuits, 4.7 million cans of protein-based food, 6.5 million units of dairy items, 12,987 metric tonnes of flour, 100,000 mattresses, 80,000 family hygiene kits, 3.1 million diapers, 144,000 blankets and 1.9 million cleaning supply items to Gaza between October 21, 2023, and January 24. Sinister side of UNRWA The agency had been infiltrated by Hamas sympathisers, supporters and even operatives decades ago and its school textbooks have been fuelling anti-Israeli sentiments and violence. However, the UNRWA always denied Israeli allegations of Hamas infiltration and support until the Israel dossier. The six-page dossier was compiled by Shin Bet and Aman after identifying the UNRWA employees in the attack footage, including taken by the terrorists, examining Hamas computers and documents seized during the war and interrogating detained terrorists. While some of them admitted to working for the UNRWA, some of the terrorists killed or detained had agency IDs on them, Israel claimed. The New York Times, which reviewed the dossier, reported the following findings: 1. Seven were teachers at UNRWA schools and two others employed in other capacities. The remaining were a clerk, a social worker and a storeroom manager who was wearing UN-branded clothes 2. Ten of them belong to Hamas and another is affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) 3. The social worker distributed ammunition, coordinated vehicles on October 7 and helped bring the dead body of an Israeli soldier to Gaza 4. One schoolteacher and his son abducted an Israel woman 5. The locations of six of them inside Israel on October 7 were traced by monitoring their cell phones 6. Others discussed their involvement in the attacks during calls made inside Gaza 7. Three others were instructed in text messages to report to evacuation points and one was ordered to bring RPGs stored at his home The dossier also alleges that 190 UNRWA employees are Hamas and PIJ operatives after assessing “intelligence information, and documents and identity cards seized during the fighting”. Hamas has “methodically and deliberately” deployed its terrorist infrastructure “in a wide range of UN facilities and assets”, it says. Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior adviser Mark Regev told Sky News that the UNRWA’s staff involvement was “not an aberration” and the investigation was “just the tip of the iceberg”. In a post on X on January 29, Regev said that it’s not just “a few bad apples” involved in the October 7 attacks; UNRWA “as a whole is a haven for Hamas’ extremist ideology and is inundated with Hamas operatives”.

UNRWA’s problem is not just "a few bad apples" involved in the October 7 massacre.

The institution as a whole is a haven for Hamas' extremist ideology and is inundated with Hamas operatives.

Watch me on @SkyNews pic.twitter.com/luQKgxBHsi

— Mark Regev (@MarkRegev) January 29, 2024

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The participation of these employees is not surprising considering the dangerous level of indoctrination of several agency teachers and other staff. The radicalism was exposed when they “celebrated” the October 7 rampage as a “glorious day”. According to Sky News Australia host and The Daily Telegraph editor James Murrow, UNRWA teachers, officials, doctors and nurses “celebrated” the attacks on their social media accounts.

During a Sky News Australia discussion on January 28, he said, “Back in November, I reported on this at The Daily Telegraph … [UNRWA staff] said, ‘Oh! Glorious day. How wonderful the rape and murder of all these Israeli citizens couldn’t come soon enough—thank Allah for that.’”

I first wrote about UNRWA employees' support for Hamas's terrorist attacks back in November ... very glad to hear that Penny Wong has finally decided to cut funding to the agency.https://t.co/KIH6RgGwJM

— James Morrow (@pwafork) January 27, 2024

Shockingly, the West—including the UNRWA’s largest donor America—the UN and human rights organisations and Leftists advocating the Palestinian cause were mum despite being aware of the celebration. In its November report titled ‘UNRWA Education: Textbooks and Terror’, Israeli non-profit organisation Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) mentioned the names of 14 UNRWA staff members who praised, celebrated or expressed support for the attacks on their social media accounts. Abu Adhm, who identifies himself as a UNRWA employee on Facebook, posted: “I have never before seen such joy in people’s hearts.” Sarah Alderawy, a UNRWA teacher, posted a video clip and images of the terrorists. The Nablus Elementary School for Boys posted a video from a rally in its courtyard showing a young boy requesting God to support Gaza Jihadist warriors against the enemies of religion [Israel]. Ranoosh Salah, who identifies herself as a UNRWA worker on Facebook, praised the attacks as an “unforgettable glorious morning” in a post. A UNRWA nurse, Halima M Sharbain, posted on Facebook calling to “keep Gaza and its Jihad warriors safe”. Another UNRWA teacher, Bilal Ahmed, in a post praised the kibbutzim attacks: “We sent against you servants of Ours—those of great military might, and they probed [even] into the homes, and it was a promise fulfilled.” Ebrahim Al Azaiza, a UNRWA English teacher, celebrated the Hamas rocket attacks by sharing a video on Facebook showing a rocket strike causing severe damage in Israel with the caption, “What a splendid sight!” Breeding ground for terrorists The radicalisation of students at UNRWA schools has triggered an avalanche of anti-Israeli sentiment and violence in the last four decades. Several students, including graduates and diploma holders, participated in the two Intifadas and terror attacks and joined the military wings of Hamas (Izz ad-Din Al-Qassam Brigades) and the PIJ (Al-Quds Brigade). The IMPACT-se report lists the names of 118 such students who turned into terrorists with several of them posing with weapons on the websites of Al-Qassam and Al-Quds brigades. Last December, Haaretz reported that several members of the Al-Nukhba Force, the naval commando unit of the al-Qassam Brigades, and other Hamas terrorists involved in the October 7 attacks are either graduates or other staff of UNRWA schools.

Research institutes tracking UNRWA for many years revealed that many members of Hamas' Nukhba Force who perpetrated the October 7 massacre are graduates of UNRWA schools or its employees https://t.co/ngF0ZeD7Mw

— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) December 13, 2023

Former Hamas PM and its current political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh and its co-founder Abd al-Aziz Rantisi, killed in an Israeli airstrike in April 2004, graduated from UNRWA schools. Hamas interior and civil minister Said Sayyam, eliminated in an Israeli airstrike in the 2008-09 Gaza War, taught at UNRWA schools from 1980 to 2003 and became a member of UNRWA’s Arab Employees Union. Hamas economy minister Jawad Abu Shamala, killed by an Israeli drone last October, was a teacher at a UNRWA school. According to the IMPACT-se report, more than 100 UNRWA graduates became terrorists by Hamas’s admission. Maoz Saad Al-Masry and Hassan Suleiman Qatnani, who murdered an Israeli woman named Lucy Dee and her two daughters on April 7, 2023, are Al-Qassam Brigades members who attended UNRWA schools. Mahmoud Zuhayr Salem, a graduate of UNRWA’s Abu Hussein Elementary School, was only 18 when he and others executed the 2004 Ashdod Port bombings, killing 16 Israelis. Ibrahim Nizar Rayan, who also attended the Abu Hussein Elementary School, was killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) after killing two Israelis in the now-demolished Israeli settlement of Gaza’s Elei Sinai in 2001. Yahya Ra’is Abu Taha, an Al-Quds member educated at UNRWA schools, killed two Israelis in Gaza in 2005. The Al-Quds website describes him wishing to “kill the highest number possible of the people of Zion”. The profile of Shadi Zakari Tubasi, another Al-Qassam member and former UNRWA school student, mentions his wish “to ultimately carry out a suicide attack in which the body parts of tens of Zionists were scattered”. Wa’el Abd al-Karim Issa, killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2021, graduated from a UNRWA school and commanded a unit of terrorists during the Second Intifada. Hamas appointed him a senior intelligence officer after taking over Gaza. Ibrahim Hussein Abu Naja, who attended UNRWA primary and secondary schools, participated in both Intifadas and was a leading Hamas explosives expert. He made bombs used in a series of terrorist attacks in the 2000s. Promotion of anti-Semitism IMPACT-se monitors school textbooks and examines school curricula worldwide to determine whether the material conforms to international standards derived from UNESCO declarations and resolutions. The report found that some educational material at UNRWA schools either promotes anti-Semitism or encourages violence and hatred against Israel. The disturbing trend has either been ignored or gone unnoticed considering that 58 per cent of the massive annual donation to the UNRWA is spent on 286,000 students in its 183 schools. What’s more concerning is that the UNRWA doesn’t have curricula and its schools teach from textbooks of the host country. For example, its schools in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem teach the Palestinian National Authority (PA) curriculum. A 2016 revision of the textbooks showed their brazen anti-Semitic content and encouragement to violence and jihad. Dalal Mughrabi, an 18-year-old Palestinian refugee from Lebanon who was part of the Fatah fedayeen squad that killed 38 Israeli bus passengers, including 13 children, on March 11, 1978, is glorified in PA textbooks. For instance, fifth graders of UNRWA’s Al-Zaytun Elementary School (Gaza) were taught to glorify Mughrabi as a role model for children. A March 2023 joint report by IMPACT-se and UN Watch found that 133 UNRWA teachers and staff promoted and glorified terrorism and called for the murder of Jews on social media. Another 82 teachers and other staff in around 30 schools drafted, supervised, printed and distributed hateful content to students. On September 1, 2021, Lazzarini acknowledged issues “related to incitement to violence and discrimination” before the European Parliament after reviewing 150 UNRWA textbooks. In written testimony to the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs on January 30 this year, IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff said, “Time and again, we have warned that today’s Palestinian textbooks are producing the terrorists of tomorrow. Sadly and tragically, on October 7, our worst fears came true.” During a hearing on “UNRWA Exposed: Examining the Agency’s Mission and Failures”, he said, “For Hamas, the manual for the hatred and incitement which they crave has been conveniently provided for many years by UNRWA schools and the textbooks that they use.” The UNRWA has “made the deliberate and conscious decision to teach the Palestinian National Authority curriculum in the UNRWA-run schools across the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Jerusalem”, he added. In January, the German daily Die Welt reported that a Telegram chat group of 3,000 UNRWA teachers discovered and analysed by UN Watch found them glorifying Hamas terrorism. UN Watch has exposed more than 150 UNRWA staff members who have sympathised with Hamas on social media since 2015.

When UN teachers praise Hamas terror

Germany's Die @Welt | January 19, 2024
By @clemenswergin
Chief Foreign Policy Correspondent

Wasim Ula is a teacher employed by UNRWA. In a Telegram chat he runs for the UN refugee agency's teachers, Ula celebrates the terrorist organization… pic.twitter.com/VTEoKfdVQ9

— UN Watch (@UNWatch) January 20, 2024

When UN Watch submitted its analysis to the UN, it didn’t respond. UNRWA representative Adnan Hasna told an Israeli TV channel that the agency “doesn’t know who is in this Telegram group”. Some of the posts published by UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer show UNRWA teachers calling Jews “monkeys” and praising the Hamas terrorists as “holy warriors” after the October 7 massacre. Hamas uses UNRWA buildings for attacks The most alarming aspect of UNRWA’s infiltration by Hamas is the use of its buildings to launch attacks on Israel. Despite repeated denials by the agency, evidence shows the outfit’s dominance. Last October, the UNRWA tweeted about Hamas stealing 24,000 litres of fuel and medical supplies from its premises only to delete it later.

UNRWA deleted this tweet thread, but UN sources and Israeli officials tell me the incident did happen pic.twitter.com/U130PAWZWp

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) October 16, 2023

The UNRWA denied its tweet later and posted: “… UNRWA would like to confirm that no looting has taken place in any of its warehouses in the Gaza Strip. The images circulating on social media were of a movement of basic medical supplies from the UNRWA warehouse to health partners.” One month later, the IDF shared images with CBS News of Hamas rocket launch sites in a UNRWA warehouse in southern Gaza and a nearby agency school. The IDF claimed to have rocket launchers and ammunition next to children’s playgrounds and within school compounds. [caption id=“attachment_13692242” align=“alignnone” width=“300”] Image source: Israel Defense Forces.[/caption] UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma claimed to have no specific information about the rocket launchers in or near its facilities. [caption id=“attachment_13692252” align=“alignnone” width=“300”] Image source: Israel Defense Forces.[/caption] However, a UN official requesting anonymity told CBS News that calling out Hamas for using its building or schools “would put our staff in jeopardy”. In December 2022, the IDF tweeted satellite photos showing ‘rocket launch sites’ next to three UNRWA schools in Gaza. “EXPOSED: This is how Hamas exploits children, teachers and school buildings for its terrorist agenda. We can reveal that Hamas is deliberately using these 3 schools in Gaza as a shield for its terrorist activities. Schools are meant for children—not rockets,” it tweeted.

EXPOSED: This is how Hamas exploits children, teachers and school buildings for its terrorist agenda.

We can reveal that Hamas is deliberately using these 3 schools in Gaza as a shield for its terrorist activities.

Schools are meant for children—not rockets. pic.twitter.com/WAUq68tjZd

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 14, 2022

In November 2022, the UNRWA located an underground tunnel below an elementary school in Gaza. It has been a decade since Palestinian terrorists have been using UNRWA schools to either hide rockets or fire them at Israel. During the 2014 Gaza War, the agency found 20 rockets hidden in one of its Gaza schools in July, according to its press release. UN’s then-secretary general Ban Ki-moon was “dismayed” at the discovery of weapons at three UNRWA schools during the war. In a letter dated to the UNSC president on April 27, 2015, he wrote: “… the fact that they were used by those involved in the fighting to store their weaponry and, in two cases, probably to fire from is unacceptable.” Considering the foolproof evidence provided by Israel and the barbarity of the October 7 bloodlust and high death toll, the UN had no option but to immediately take action against the UNRWA employees involved in the attacks. The West has been jolted out of its deep slumber and ignorance about the use of UNRWA schools and other buildings and the radicalisation of its students by terrorists in the name of Islamic resistance. The UNRWA’s proximity to terrorists and the indoctrination of its students calls for an elaborate investigation. On the other hand, funding shouldn’t be frozen to prevent a full-scale famine in Gaza. Its residents are deprived of food, medical care and housing with families hardly able to afford one meal as Israel continues to carpet-bomb the besieged enclave. The writer is a freelance journalist with two decades of experience and comments primarily on foreign affairs. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.

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