{"id":15702,"date":"2024-02-18T00:46:37","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T00:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/18\/israel-releases-names-and-details-of-alleged-involvement-of-unrwa-employees-in-october-7-attacks\/"},"modified":"2024-02-18T00:46:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T00:46:37","slug":"israel-releases-names-and-details-of-alleged-involvement-of-unrwa-employees-in-october-7-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/18\/israel-releases-names-and-details-of-alleged-involvement-of-unrwa-employees-in-october-7-attacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u00a0releases names and details of alleged involvement of UNRWA employees in October 7 attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Israel released more details on Friday about the 12 employees of the UN\u2019s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) who it has accused of participating in the October 7 terrorist attacks and kidnappings, including their names, photos and alleged roles with Hamas. <\/p>\n

The additional details also included screengrabs of what\u00a0Israel\u00a0said were two UNWRA employees \u2013 a social worker and math teacher \u2013 in\u00a0Israel\u00a0on October 7. The defense ministry also provided ID photos of 10 other alleged Hamas members, their positions and alleged involvement in the deadly incursion, but did not provide any supporting evidence to back up their claims. <\/p>\n

The surprise Hamas attacks left about 1,200 dead and saw more than 250 others taken hostage. <\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s bombardment and ground offensive in response has forcibly displaced at least 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza \u2013 most of whom are now crammed in Rafah, near the border with Egypt. Panic has grown in the city ahead of a looming Israeli ground offensive. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the nearby city of Khan Younis, Israeli forces Friday continued a deadly raid of Nasser Hospital, Gaza\u2019s largest functioning medical facility. <\/p>\n

Breakdown in relations<\/h2>\n

Israel\u2019s relations with the United Nations have deteriorated in recent months, after the organization\u2019s senior officials repeatedly condemned the country\u2019s military approach to the war in Gaza. <\/p>\n

Last month, Israel\u00a0presented the United Nations, the United States, and other allies with a dossier that included allegations about these 12 UNRWA employees \u2013 out of 13,000 in Gaza \u2013 leading more than a dozen countries to suspend funding to the agency, which plays a central role in feeding and sheltering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the strip. <\/p>\n

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said a diplomat at Israel\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs briefed him on the dossier in mid-January, but said the agency had not been provided with a copy. <\/p>\n

Lazzarini told reporters at a press conference in Jerusalem on February 9 that \u201cI have seen a large dossier in the room that the person had, coming from their own internal intelligence, and he was reading this and translating for me.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThere were strong allegations, with names and for each of the name[s] associated to a given activity on that day,\u201d Lazzarini said. <\/p>\n

UNRWA quickly fired 10 of the 12 staff members accused by\u00a0Israel\u00a0of involvement in the October 7 attacks and launched an investigation into the allegations, in hopes of keeping international funding to the agency flowing at a critical time. The UN said two of the 12 had died. <\/p>\n

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The\u00a0Israeli government said the social worker was a Hamas operative involved in kidnapping an\u00a0Israeli soldier from Be\u2019eri and coordinating the transfer of weapons and trucks. It accused the math teacher of holding a \u201clogistical position\u201d in Hamas\u2019s Deir el-Balah battalion and said he was involved in \u201creceiving and holding hostages\u201d and was \u201cseen photographing a female hostage.\u201d <\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s allegations against the other UNRWA employees ranged from being identified in\u00a0Israel\u00a0on October 7 to assisting in kidnapping\u00a0Israelis. <\/p>\n

\u201cUNRWA has lost legitimacy and can no longer function as a UN body. I have instructed the defense establishment to begin transferring responsibilities related to the delivery of aid, to additional organizations,\u201d\u00a0Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters during a briefing on Friday. \u201cUNRWA is deeply embedded in terror activity. The world must see the pictures that I have shown here.\u201d <\/p>\n

An UNRWA spokesman said the United Nation\u2019s highest investigative authority is investigating the matter, but declined to comment on the additional details provided by\u00a0Israel\u00a0on Friday. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as the investigation is ongoing, UNRWA is not in a position to provide further information on the allegations in question,\u201d the UNRWA spokesman said. <\/p>\n

Gallant also alleged that 1,468 UNRWA workers \u2013 or about 12% of its Gaza staff \u2013 \u201care known to be active\u201d members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, of which he said 185 are \u201cactive in the military branches of Hamas.\u201d He did not provide any evidence to back up his claim. <\/p>\n

The UNWRA spokesman said the agency annually shares the names, employee numbers and functions of all staff members with\u00a0Israel. It said the names shared included the names of the 12 individuals identified by\u00a0Israel\u00a0in the dossier, and that\u00a0Israel\u00a0had not informed UNRWA of those staffers\u2019 alleged involvement with Hamas prior to January. <\/p>\n

An UNRWA spokesman said the agency screens its staff on a biannual basis against the UN Security Council\u2019s sanctions list and said the fact that the October 7th attack went \u201cundetected\u201d by\u00a0Israel\u2019s intelligence services implies \u201cthat all involved, including people who allegedly work for UNRWA, participated illicitly in ways that UNRWA also would have been unable to detect.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israel released more details on Friday about the 12 employees of the UN\u2019s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) who it has accused of participating in the October 7 terrorist attacks and kidnappings, including their names, photos and alleged roles with Hamas. The additional details also included screengrabs of what\u00a0Israel\u00a0said were two UNWRA employees \u2013 a <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}