Israel escalates its criticism of a UN agency in Gaza

JERUSALEM — Israel ramped up its criticism of the embattled U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees Monday, saying 450 of its employees were members of terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.

Major international funders have withheld hundreds of millions of dollars from the agency, known as UNRWA, since Israel accused 12 of its employees of participating in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people and left about 250 others held hostage in Gaza.

The attack sparked an Israeli invasion of the enclave that the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians.

UNRWA, which employs roughly 13,000 people in Gaza, is the biggest aid provider in the enclave.

“Over 450 UNRWA employees are military operatives in terror groups in Gaza — 450. This is no mere coincidence. This is systematic. There is no claiming, ‘we did not know,’” said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, Israel’s chief military spokesperson.

UNRWA in a statement accused Israel of detaining several of its staffers and forcing them, using torture and ill treatment, into giving false confessions about the links between the agency, Hamas and the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.

After Israel’s initial accusation against UNRWA, the agency fired the accused employees and more than a dozen countries suspended funding worth about $450 million, almost half its budget for the year.

Juliette Touma, director of communications for UNRWA, had no direct comment on the new Israeli allegations.

“UNRWA encourages any entity that has any information on the very serious allegations against UNRWA staff to share it with the ongoing U.N. investigation,” she said.

Two U.N. investigations into Israel’s allegations were already underway when the EU said Friday it will pay 50 million euros ($54 million) to UNRWA after the agency agreed to allow EU-appointed experts to audit the way it screens staff to identify extremists.

Hagari also released a recording of a call he said was of an UNRWA teacher describing his role in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

“We have female captives. I caught one,” the male voice is heard saying in Arabic. A man on a second call, alleged to be an Islamic Jihad terrorist who Israel also claimed was an UNRWA teacher, is heard saying “I’m inside with the Jews.”

The military named the men, though the man in the first call identified himself in the recording by a different name. The military said that name may have been a nickname.