'Israel' has not provided evidence to back claims on UNRWA: UN

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Guardian
1 Mar 2024 15:26
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The absence of substantiating material raises questions about the credibility of the Israeli allegations, impacting major donors who suspended contributions to UNRWA amid a real-time genocide.

Israeli occupation forces take up positions as they raid the UNRWA headquarters in the Gaza Strip, on Thursday, February 8, 2024. (AP)

A month after "Israel" claimed that twelve United Nations personnel were implicated in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, UN investigators have not yet received any evidence from "Israel" to corroborate the allegations.

Accusations targeting the 12 UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) employees prompted 16 major donors to halt contributions amounting to $450 million, coinciding with a period where over two million residents in Gaza are confronting the threat of famine due to the Israeli genocide and total blockade. UNRWA warned that it is reaching a "breaking point", and possesses funds only adequate for sustaining operations for the next month, at best.

The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) commenced an inquiry on January 29th following the Israeli accusations, initially reported to UNRWA in January. An update on the investigation progress was provided to UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday.

Diplomats who reviewed the preliminary report from OIOS stated that it did not include any fresh evidence from "Israel" since the initial presentation of the claims in January, which lacked supporting proof. Summarizing the results, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric affirmed that the investigation still awaits corroborating material from "Israel".

“OIOS investigators have reviewed the initial information received by UNRWA from Israeli authorities,” Dujarric said on Thursday.

“The investigation remains ongoing. OIOS will seek to corroborate additional information and to compare the information obtained with materials held by Israeli authorities, which OIOS expects to receive shortly,” he added.

“OIOS staff are planning to visit Israel soon to obtain information from Israeli authorities that may be relevant to the investigation,” Dujarric further stressed.

He mentioned that the investigators had engaged with other member states and conducted visits to the UNRWA headquarters in Jordan to examine details about UNRWA personnel and activities, encompassing electronic communications and information regarding the utilization of UN vehicles.

In the same context, the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, told journalists, on Thursday, “It is a little bit shortsighted to believe that UNRWA can just technically hand over all its activities to other UN agencies or NGOs.”

“It’s an agency [that’s] quite unique because we are … primarily providing government-like services to one of the most destitute communities in the region,” he said.

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Last month, "Israel" accused UNRWA staff of having ties to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Despite lacking public evidence to support these claims, more than 10 donor countries, including the United States, Germany, the European Union, Canada, and Japan suspended financial support. This significant loss of funding, which constitutes the majority of UNRWA's budget, is placing the agency at risk of running out of funds completely within weeks.

In a related development, a new report by the US intelligence has lately revealed that the latter evaluated the Israeli claims about the alleged involvement of staff members at the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) on October 7 and gave it a “low confidence” assessment, The Wall Street Journal stated, citing officials familiar with the matter.

The National Intelligence Council (NIC), a group of veteran intelligence analysts, worked on the four-page report, which was circulated within the US government last week, the sources revealed.

The Intelligence Council develops and sustains intelligence and information-exchanging relationships with international, military, domestic, and private sector partners to boost intelligence-related communications. Its authority to conduct such activities is governed by many laws and regulations mainly the "Executive Order 12333, United States Intelligence Activities," which was amended in 2008.

The US intelligence report's “low confidence” assessment emphasized that the intelligence officials find "Israel’s" claims that a dozen UNRWA employees took part in the attacks "plausible," yet no stronger confirmation can be made for the lack of independent evidence to back them.