UN fires 9 UNRWA employees over possible role in Oct 7 massacre, claims insufficient evidence for 10 others

Announcement is latest update for the scandal-ridden organization which has repeatedly been accused of Hamas ties

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The United Nations announced on Monday evening that it is terminating the employment of nine UNRWA employees who “may have been involved” in the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on southern Israel.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said the organization had completed an “investigation by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) into the serious allegations that 19 area UNRWA staff members in Gaza were involved in the abhorrent attacks of October 7 on southern Israel.”

The organization only investigated 19 UNRWA staff members, despite Israel providing a list of over 100 employees with some form of connection to the Hamas terror group.

According to the UN’s internal investigation, in nine of the 19 cases, “the evidence obtained by OIOS was insufficient to support the staff members’ involvement and the OIOS investigation of them is now closed.”

It also stated that, in one case, “no evidence was obtained by OIOS to support the allegations” and announced that the person had been rehired.

However, the UN added: “For the remaining nine cases, the evidence - if authenticated and corroborated - could indicate that the staff members may have been involved in the attacks of 7 October.”

“All contracts of these staff members will be terminated in the interest of the Agency,” said Lazzarini

In July, Israel’s Foreign Ministry sent a letter to Lazzarini listing over 100 UNRWA employees accused of being affiliated with Hamas, along with supporting evidence.

In June, the Israeli Knesset prepared a legislative bill proposing to designate UNRWA as a terror organization and end all contact between the Israeli government and the agency.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan responded to the firing of the nine UNRWA employees, saying it was “too little, too late.”

“The UN investigation, which focused exclusively on 19 UNRWA workers, is a disgrace! Too little and too late,” Erdan wrote on 𝕏. “The investigation ignored the thousands of agency employees involved in the terrorist activities of Hamas, and the scope of the involvement. Israel has provided the UN with precise details of over a hundred UNRWA employees who are members of the terrorist organization Hamas.”

Erdan accused UN Sec.-Gen. António Guterres of “refusing to recognize the reality” of UNRWA’s terror ties and called out Guterres for recently awarding UNRWA-Gaza the UN Secretary-General's Award for 2023.

“The Secretary General should resign and UNRWA should be closed!” Erdan wrote.

Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Oren Marmorstein also called the announcement of the firing, “too little, too late.”

It is too little too late, but the truth is starting to come to light.

The probe by the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) proves that Israel's assertions about the involvement of UNRWA employees in the October 7 massacre are credible and true.

And that's just… pic.twitter.com/8jUBp8sOgb
— Oren Marmorstein (@OrenMarmorstein) August 5, 2024

He accused the UN of “deliberately delaying” the investigation of the full list of names it provided in July.

“UNRWA is part of the problem and not part of the solution, and anyone who seeks the best interests of Israel, the Gaza Strip and the region should act to replace UNWRA's activities with other agencies,” Marmorstein wrote.

A previous review of UNRWA by a reportedly independent panel in April argued that Israel failed to provide supporting evidence for previous claims about UNRWA staff being members of terror organizations.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry rejected the report, stating that Hamas was so firmly embedded in UNRWA that “it is impossible to say where UNRWA ends and Hamas begins.”

“If more than 2,135 UNRWA employees are members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and 1/5 of the principals of UNRWA schools are Hamas activists, the problem with UNRWA-Gaza is not a problem of a few bad apples,” the ministry said at the time. “It is a poisoned and rotten tree whose roots are Hamas.”

Previous studies by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found that UNRWA schools continued to teach hatred against Israel despite repeatedly pledging to end such incitement.

Several countries ended their financial aid to UNRWA after Israel made several allegations against its employees being involved in the Oct. 7 attack.