U.N. fires Gaza staff over claims they joined Hamas attack

The United Nations fired several staffers at its Palestinian refugee agency over Israeli allegations that they took part in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, news that prompted the U.S. to suspend funding.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “is horrified by the news” that workers with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, may have been involved in the attack by Hamas terrorists on southern Israel, and urged the agency’s chief to refer the accused for potential prosecution, his office said in a statement Friday.

He said that there would be an “urgent and comprehensive independent review” of the agency.

The claims come as a black eye for UNRWA, which provides humanitarian assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank.

It has long been regarded with suspicion by Israel and Republicans in the United States, who argue that it only fuels the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and money going to food, education and health care frees up Hamas to fund hostilities against Israel.

“These shocking allegations come as more than 2 million people in Gaza depend on lifesaving assistance that the agency has been providing since the war began,” UNRWA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement Friday. “Anyone who betrays the fundamental values of the United Nations also betrays those whom we serve in Gaza, across the region and elsewhere around the world.”

While criticism over UNRWA’s role in the Israel-Palestinian conflict became even more charged after Hamas launched its terrorist attack on Israel, the group has also paid a heavy price in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, with more than 150 of its staff killed in the violence.

A vast majority of UNRWA’s 30,000 staff is Palestinian, with 13,000 of those in Gaza. The U..S State Department said in a statement Friday that 12 UNRWA staff had been accused of links to the attacks.

The U.S. — UNRWA’s main donor — also announced Friday it was suspending additional funding for the organization in the wake of the allegations.

“There must be complete accountability for anyone who participated in the heinous attacks of Oct. 7,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in the statement. The U.S. contributed more than $296 million to the group in 2023.

Senator James Risch, an Idaho Republican who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he had warned the Biden administration for years about funding the agency, which he said “has a history of employing people connected to terrorist movements like Hamas.”

Despite the recent allegations, the U.S. signaled it continues to support the agency. UNRWA plays “a critical role in providing lifesaving assistance to Palestinians, including essential food, medicine, shelter, and other vital humanitarian support,” Miller said in the statement.

The European Union also expressed concern over the allegations, and said it expects UNRWA “to provide full transparency on the allegations and to take immediate measures against staff involved.”

Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is raising concerns over a series of recent U.S. military strikes against Yemen Houthi terrorists, urging the Biden administration to get congressional authorization before taking further military action in the Middle East.

In a letter to President Joe Biden on Friday, a coalition of nearly 30 House members expressed their strong opposition to what they described as “unauthorized” American strikes that have further escalated the biggest confrontation at sea the U.S. Navy has seen in the Middle East in a decade.

“As representatives of the American people, Congress must engage in robust debate before American servicemembers are put in harm’s way and before more U.S. taxpayer dollars are spent on yet another war in the Middle East,” the letter, led by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, stated. “No president, regardless of political party, has the constitutional authority to bypass Congress on matters of war.”

The White House, for their part, has defended the multiple rounds of airstrikes it has taken in partnership with the United Kingdom since early January in response to what has been a persistent campaign of Houthi drone and missile attacks on commercial ships since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.