Israeli diplomats have pre-emptively attacked the findings of two inquires into the role of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, in Gaza, on the day that one of the inquiries submitted its interim finding to the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres.
Unrwa has come under heavy criticism since Israel accused 12 of its Gaza staff of 13,000 of being implicated in the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel. The agency denies the charge and says no solid evidence has been presented to support it.
The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) launched an investigation on 29 January after the Israeli allegations. Parallel to the OIOS inquiry, a broader review of Unrwa’s activities and neutrality is under way, led by a former French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, and supported by three Nordic research organisations.
The Colonna review was commissioned by Guterres in January, before the Israeli allegations were made. The review group, which presented its interim findings on Tuesday, found that “Unrwa has in place a significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the humanitarian principle of neutrality.”
But the UN spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino said investigators had “also identified critical areas that still need to be addressed”.
She did not specify which issues had been identified, but said: “The review group will now develop concrete and realistic recommendations on how to address these critical areas to strengthen and improve Unrwa.” The final report on Unrwa will be made public on 20 April.
Israeli diplomats in London hit out at both investigations on Wednesday, vowing that Israel would never let the agency back into Gaza regardless of the outcomes. One Israeli diplomatic source said: “A double game has been played by Hamas and Unrwa, so much so that Unrwa is a Hamas strategic asset.”
The diplomats said Unrwa could not be reformed and claimed that international donors that have suspended funding for the agency might be misled into restoring it by the inquiries. Both inquiries had been given overly narrow terms of reference and the OIOS inquiry is not taking fresh evidence that Israel was compiling in the field about the alleged depth of Hamas infiltration, the diplomats said.
Israel also released new figures claiming its intelligence showed that 2,135 Unrwa staff were members of Hamas, representing 17% of the total workforce in Gaza, of whom at least 400 were active fighters.
A senior Israeli diplomat said: “Unrwa is so penetrated in Gaza, it cannot be repaired. This is the policy of the state of Israel. We want to see an end to Unrwa activity in Gaza. This is not a case of a few bad apples. It is systemic, consistent and cannot be ignored. It is not possible that Unrwa did not know 17% of its staff were Hamas operatives.
“There are a number of alternative organisations that are already active on the ground that have played major roles in conflicts and know how to operate in Gaza.”
The claims of Hamas infiltration could not be independently verified, and Israel’s critics say insufficient evidence has been presented publicly.
The US has said the agency has an “absolutely indispensable role” to play in distributing aid in Gaza, where the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said the “entire population” is suffering “severe levels of acute food insecurity”.
On Wednesday, the World Bank warned that half the population of the Gaza Strip was at imminent risk of famine, one day after the UN said Israel’s severe restrictions on aid into Gaza coupled with its military offensive could amount to using starvation as a “weapon of war”, which would be a war crime.
The Israeli officials admitted that they faced a challenge in phasing out Unrwa’s food distribution role at a time when even its allies were demanding a big increase in aid flows into Gaza but made the point that alternative agencies could take up the task.
“We have to figure out how to increase a humanitarian effort inside Gaza without providing aid through an organisation that’s essentially very closely intertwined with the enemy that we’re trying to defeat,” the source said.
The initial Israeli allegations led 16 donors to suspend contributions to Unrwa, and though some countries have begun to restore funding, partly worried by reports of an imminent famine, the big donors – US, Germany and the UK – have yet to make a decision.
In the past, UK ministers have said they cannot foresee an organisation being able to replicate Unrwa’s work, but a decision to restore funding is made more complicated if Israel, the de facto post-war authority in Gaza, demands that its operations be wound up.
A total of 13,000 Unrwa staff work in Gaza and 30,000 in refugee camps in the region, including Jordan, Lebanon and the West Bank.
Unrwa was given a mandate in 1949 by the UN general assembly to carry out “direct relief and works programmes” for Palestine refugees.
On Tuesday the Guardian revealed that according to internal UN documents, Unrwa staff working with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been subjected to a systematic campaign of obstruction and harassment by the Israeli military and authorities since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza five months ago. A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said in response they had “no issues with Unrwa in the West Bank”, adding: “We are not trying to harass them.”
Israeli officials have long criticised Unrwa, but ramped up pressure after the allegations were made against Unrwa employees over the Hamas attacks. In recent weeks, a stream of anti-Unrwa rhetoric from senior officials has inflamed public sentiment.
On Tuesday, Israel’s main ally, the US, defended the need for the Unrwa commissioner Philippe Lazzarini and his staff to visit Gaza, a day after Lazzarini publicly complained that Israel had blocked him.
