UN ends probe of 5 UNRWA employees connected to Oct. 7 due to 'insufficient evidence'

The United Nations has decided to end its probe of five UNRWA employees who reportedly participated in the Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis, citing “insufficient evidence”.

In February, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant released the names of 12 UNRWA employees who had taken part in the unprecedented Hamas invasion of southern Israel.

At the time, Gallant also told the media that Israel had the names of at least 30 additional UNRWA employees who assisted in the Hamas attack.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for UN Sec.-Gen. António Guterres, claimed that one UNRWA employee was cleared, “as no evidence was provided by Israel to support the allegations.”

The UN had ended probing three additional UNRWA employees, Dujarric announced, due to “insufficient evidence.”

The senior UN official said a fifth employee had “also been suspended pending receipt of additional supporting evidence,” adding that other cases “are currently under investigation.”

In January, the United States and several other governments, suspended their financial aid to UNRWA after Israel presented incriminating evidence that linked several of the organization’s employees to the Hamas atrocities.

At the time, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller emphasized that Washington was “extremely troubled” by the information linking UNRWA employees to Hamas terrorism.

“There must be complete accountability for anyone who participated in the heinous attacks,” he stated. The British Foreign Office expressed similar sentiments.

“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.”

UNRWA is largely dependent on financial aid from the U.S., Germany, the United Kingdom and other Western governments. Responding to growing international diplomatic pressure, the UN promised it would launch a - presumably independent - investigation into the troubling links between UNRWA and Hamas.

However, concerns among UNRWA critics that the UN would only propose cosmetic changes appear to have been justified.

The UN investigation panel, led by the former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, largely whitewashed the entire UNRWA scandal in its final report.

“The set of rules and the mechanisms and procedures in place [at UNRWA] are the most elaborate within the UN system, precisely because it is such a difficult issue to work in such a complex and sensitive environment,” Colonna told media representatives.

“Israel made public claims that a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organisations. However, Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of this,” the report claimed.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded decisively.

 “Hamas has infiltrated UNRWA so deeply that it is no longer possible to determine where UNRWA ends and where Hamas begins. More than 2,135 UNRWA workers are members of either Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), while one-fifth of UNRWA school administrators are Hamas members.”

The 54-page UN panel report does provide 50 recommendations, including improved screening of applicants and an updated Code of Ethics.

Whether genuine reforms will be undertaken remains to be seen, but by the end of April, most donor nations had already announced they would resume their financial support of the UN agency.

The German government, which is the second largest UNRWA donor after the U.S., justified its resumption of financial aid by referring to the UN panel report’s conclusions.