IDF releases recordings of 4 UNRWA workers involved in Oct. 7 attack and abduction of Israelis

Israel Defense Forces released recordings and the identities of four more UNRWA employees who participated in the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis and the abduction of some 250 Israelis and foreign nationals in southern Israel.

UNRWA is a UN agency that is officially tasked with providing welfare and education for the Palestinian population, who have a permanent refugee status. However, critics have argued for years that UNRWA incites hatred against Jews and encourages terrorism against Israel, a clear violation of its official mandate as a humanitarian agency.

Yousef Zidan Suliman al-Hawajri, an Arabic teacher in a UNRWA school in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, in one recording proudly described how he crossed over into Israeli territory and was holding an Israeli woman that he kidnapped. The Israeli military identified him as a terrorist affiliated with the military wing of the Hamas terrorist group.

"I’m inside, with the Jews," the UNRWA teacher was heard saying during a phone conversation with another individual. He openly admitted that he had taken hostages during the invasion of southern Israel.

"We have hostages. I caught one," al-Hawajri said and could be heard laughing and describing an Israeli woman as a “noble mare.”

IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari noted that Hamas terrorists used the same derogatory terminology for Israeli Jewish women as ISIS terrorists.

"The way they refer to the abducted women as 'Sabaya' or 'noble mares' is extremely worrying and calls for a global outcry – the same as when the world cried for Yazidi women," Hagari emphasized.

The senior IDF official promised that Israel would soon reveal the identities of additional Oct. 7 terrorists who were officially employed by UNRWA at the time of the attack.

"Terror organizations in the Strip use civilian institutions, hospitals, and international aid organizations, and coerce them for terrorist purposes and harming innocent civilians," the Israeli military announced in an official statement.

In December, Israeli journalist Almog Boker published a testimony of a former Israeli hostage who confirmed that he had been imprisoned by a UNRWA teacher in Gaza.

“'Uninvolved,’ they say, right? Well, read this story carefully. One of the abductees, held for nearly 50 days in an attic, reveals he was held by a UNRWA teacher – a father of 10 children. This teacher locked the victim away, barely provided food, and neglected medical needs,” Boker wrote.

In January, the U.S. and several other governments suspended their aid to UNRWA following reports that a significant number of UNRWA employees had participated in the Hamas massacre.

“The UK is appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK Government has repeatedly condemned,” the Foreign Office in London stated. Similar sentiments were heard in Washington and other Western capitals.

In early February, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused UNRWA of being complicit in Hamas’ crimes against humanity on Oct. 7, the day that Israelis now refer to as the "Black Shabbat."

“UNRWA is totally infiltrated with Hamas,” Netanyahu told a UN delegation in Israel. “It has been in the service of Hamas and its schools, and in many other things,” he added.

“I think it’s time that the international community and the UN itself understand that UNRWA’s mission has to end,” Netanyahu argued.