Extract from ABC News
An independent review of the neutrality of the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees has found that Israel has provided no evidence that a "significant number" of staff were involved in terrorist organisations, despite receiving a staff list annually since 2011.
The 48-page report, released on Monday, also found the agency had robust structures in place to ensure compliance with humanitarian neutrality principles, although issues remain.
The United Nations appointed former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna to lead the UNRWA neutrality review in February after Israel alleged that 12 UNRWA staff took part in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, which triggered the Gaza war.
Israel stepped up its accusations in March, saying more than 450 UNRWA staff were military operatives in Gaza terrorist groups.
In a separate investigation, a UN oversight body is looking into the Israeli allegations against the 12 UNRWA staff.
Reuters reviewed a copy of the Colonna review's final report before it was made public.
The report said Israel had made public claims based on a UNRWA staff list provided to it in March that "a significant number" of UNRWA staff were members of "terrorist organisations".
"However, Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of this," it said.
Israel's allegations against the dozen UNRWA staff led 16 states including Australia to pause or suspend funding of $700 million to UNRWA, a blow to an agency grappling with the humanitarian crisis that has swept Gaza since Israel launched its offensive there.
Israel has long complained about the agency, founded in 1949 to care for Palestinian refugees.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for UNRWA to be shut down.
UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini in March warned of "a deliberate and concerted campaign" to end its operations.
Contracts terminated after alleged October 7 involvement
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters rampaged through Israeli towns on October 7, killing 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.
UNRWA says it terminated the contracts of 10 of the 12 staff accused by Israel of involvement in the October 7 attacks, and that the other two are dead.
The agency employs 32,000 people across its area of operations, 13,000 of them in Gaza.
UNRWA shares staff lists annually with Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Syria and Israel, the review said, but also noted that Israeli officials never expressed concern and informed panel members it did not consider the list "a screening or vetting process" but rather a procedure to register diplomats.
The report also said the Israeli Foreign Ministry had informed the panel that until March 2024, the staff lists did not include Palestinian identification numbers.
The report noted that UNRWA has "a more developed approach" to neutrality than other similar UN or aid groups.
"Despite this robust framework, neutrality-related issues persist," it found.
It said these included some staff publicly expressing political views, textbooks with problematic content being used in some UNRWA schools, and politicised staff unions making threats against UNRWA management and disrupting operations.
In Gaza, UNRWA's neutrality challenges included the size of the operation, with most personnel being locally recruited and also recipients of UNRWA services, the review said.
From 2017 to 2022, the report said the annual number of allegations of neutrality being breached at UNRWA ranged from seven to 55.
But between January 2022 and February 2024, UN investigators received 151 allegations, most related to social media posts "made public by external sources," it said.
Israel dismisses report, repeats claims of 'enormous' Hamas infiltration
Israel's Foreign Ministry on Monday called on donor countries to avoid sending money to the organisation.
"The Colonna report ignores the severity of the problem, and offers cosmetic solutions that do not deal with the enormous scope of Hamas's infiltration of UNRWA," ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said.
"This is not what a genuine and thorough review looks like. This is what an effort to avoid the problem and not address it head-on looks like."
Ms Colonna, speaking at the United Nations as the report was released, said the panel had been well received by Israelis while conducting its review and she urged the Israeli government not to discount it.
"Of course, you will find it is insufficient, but please take it on board. Whatever we recommend, if implemented, will bring good."
The report stresses the critical importance of UNRWA, calling it "irreplaceable and indispensable to Palestinians' human and economic development" in the absence of a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and "pivotal in providing life-saving humanitarian aid and essential social services, particularly in health and education, to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank".
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric welcomed this commitment to UNRWA and said the report "lays out clear recommendations, which the secretary-general accepts".
UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini said last week he accepted all recommendations.
As Israel has called for the break-up of the agency, Mr Lazzarini told the UN Security Council that dismantling UNRWA would deepen Gaza's humanitarian crisis and speed up the onset of famine.
International experts have warned of imminent famine in northern Gaza and said half the territory's 2.3 million people could be pushed to the brink of starvation if the Israeli-Hamas war intensifies.
Some states had resumed UNRWA funding but had requested a reinforcement of existing neutrality mechanisms and procedures.
Following the Israeli allegations against UNRWA staff, the United States, UNRWA's biggest donor at $US300 million-$US400 million ($465 million-$620 million) a year, paused funding, then the US congress suspended contributions until at least March 2025.
Australia paused funding in late January, soon after announcing that UNRWA would receive $6 million out of $21.5 million in humanitarian support, but resumed in March.
Reuters/AP
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