Reuters: 'Israel' coerced UNRWA employees to admit ties to Hamas
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Reuters reports a yet unpublished document that UNRWA found that its staffers were coerced by Israeli forces through the use of violence to falsely state they had links with Hamas or took part in the October 7 operation.
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Israeli occupation soldiers inside a compound of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) after forcing displaced families residing inside to evacuate, in Gaza City, on February 8, 2024. (AFP)
Following weeks of a nonstop Israeli targeted campaign against the UN agency, UNRWA said in an unpublished report that some of its staffers were coerced into falsely stating that they had ties with Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas, and that they took part in the al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 last year, Reuters reported on Saturday.
The occupation entity alleged in January that 12 of the 12,000 UNRWA members in Gaza participated in the October operation.
According to the news agency, UNRWA's report dated February said that its workers were subjected "to threats and coercion" by the Israeli authorities "while in detention and pressured to make false statements against the Agency," including that it has affiliations with Hamas, and that "UNRWA staff members took part" in the Resistance operation in October 2023.
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Juliette Touma, the communications director for UNRWA, stated that the agency intended to provide the information contained in the report to organizations both within and outside the UN, who are specialized in documenting potential human rights violations.
"When the war comes to an end there needs to be a series of inquiries to look into all violations of human rights," Touma said.
The UNRWA report said that the agency's staffers were subjected to waterboarding, beatings, dog attacks, sexual violence, in addition to the death of some detainees under interrogation after being denied medical care.
'No evidence'
The Israeli allegations prompted over 15 countries, including the United States, to suspend almost half a billion dollars in UNRWA fundings. The agency warned of the catastrophic reprecussions of this decision on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, already in shatters due to "Israel's" ongoing genocide and starvation policy.
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UNRWA offers educational, healthcare, and humanitarian assistance to approximately 5.7 million registered Palestinian refugees across the Middle East. The United States, "Israel's" staunch ally and its main backer in the genocide in Gaza, has been the largest contributor to UNRWA's $1.4 billion annual budget.
On March 4, "Israel's" ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, claimed that UNRWA's work in Gaza was over, calling for the defunding and dismantling of the organization.
Meanwhile, Phillipe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, has reiterated that "Israel" provided no evidence against the accused agency employees, pointing out out that it was "a deliberate and concerted campaign" to end the agency and its work.
In attempt to get operations running again, UNRWA fired the staff members accused by "Israel" to maintain the agency's ability to facilitate and deliver humanitarian assistance to Gaza. An independent internal UN probe was later launched as well.
Read more: UNRWA chief says agency reached 'breaking point' amid funding crisis
But a few weeks after the decision, many countries resumed their funding of the agency, including Canada and Sweden.
Asserting the credibility of the report, which was based on interviews with dozens of Palestinians previously subjected to Israeli detention, and who received assistance from the agency, Touma told Reuters that the report was based on "first-hand testimonies that people told us. In some cases there were clearly some physical impact on people's bodies. And also psychological impact. So this is what's also been documented."
The communications director stated that the agency welcomes any organization with information regarding the allegations against its staff to share it with the investigation being conducted by a United Nations oversight body.
