UN fires several Gaza employees over alleged involvement in Hamas attack on Israel

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Friday said it had sacked “several” employees Israel accused of involvement in Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack that triggered the Gaza war. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said he took the decision “to protect the Agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance” and launched an investigation after Israeli authorities provided information about the staff members’ alleged involvement. Following the development, the Biden administration has temporarily suspended assistance to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees following allegations that some of its employees took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. The State Department said Friday it was “extremely troubled” by the allegations and had paused additional aid to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency pending a review of the claims and any action the UN takes to address them. UNRWA, established in 1949 following the first Arab-Israeli war, provides services including schooling, primary healthcare and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Israel’s blistering ground and air offensive has decimated vast swaths of Gaza during the nearly 4-month-old war. The conflict broke out on Oct. 7 when Hamas terrorists stormed southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting some 250. UNRWA has provided aid and used its facilities to shelter people fleeing bombardment and a ground offensive launched by Israel in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attacks, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 253 people taken hostage. Israel’s offensive has laid waste to much of the densely populated Gaza Strip and killed more than 25,000 Palestinians. UNRWA, whose biggest donors in 2022 were the United States, Germany, the European Union and Sweden, has repeatedly said its capacity to render humanitarian assistance to people in Gaza is on the verge of collapse. With inputs from agencies.