Israel intensifies its criticism of Gaza-based UN organisation

Israel has increased its criticism of the struggling UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Monday. They said that 450 of its workers in Gaza are part of militant groups, but they did not show any proof for their claim.

Many big donors have not given a lot of money to UNRWA because Israel said 12 of its workers helped in a bad event. Israeli authorities say that Hamas has attacked Israel 7 times, killing 1,200 people and holding 250 others hostage in Gaza.

Philippe Lazzarini, the leader of UNRWA, said at a press conference on Monday that he has never been told or shown any evidence of Israel’s claims, and this isn’t the first time.

Each year, he stated that UNRWA gives Israel and the Palestinian Authority a list of its employees. He never received any worries about the staff they hire.

He was told that 12 UNRWA workers were accused of being involved in the October incident. He said there have been 7 attacks that seemed really serious, so they have been reported and two investigations by the UN are happening now.

The UN representative for sexual violence in war, Pramila Patten, said on Monday that there is evidence to believe that Hamas committed rape and other forms of cruel treatment towards women during the attack.

The attack caused Israel to invade the area where 2. 3 million people live, called Gaza. Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed. Help organizations say that ongoing battles have forced almost all the people living in the area to leave their homes, causing a big human crisis.

UNRWA is the largest organization that helps people in Gaza, and it has about 13,000 workers there.

On Monday, the accusations against the agency got much more serious. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, who is in charge of Israel’s military, did not give any names or proof to support the claim that a lot more UNRWA employees are militants.

More than 450 UNRWA workers are involved in terrorist groups in Gaza. This is not just a random event. This is organized and follows a specific system. Hagari said we can’t say “we didn’t know” to avoid taking responsibility.

UNRWA said that Israel has arrested some of its workers and made them confess to untrue things by torturing them. They said that Israel is trying to link UNRWA, Hamas, and an event in October. 7 violent attacks on Israel.

The Israeli authorities are making people say things they don’t mean because they are hurting them. They are doing this to make people believe that UNRWA is not a good organization. They want to get rid of UNRWA. “This is making our staff in Gaza unsafe and has a big impact on our work in Gaza and the surrounding area. ”

After Israel accused UNRWA, the agency fired the accused employees and many countries stopped giving money. UNRWA lost about $450 million, which is almost half of its yearly budget.

Juliette Touma, who is in charge of talking to the public for UNRWA, did not directly respond to the new claims made by Israel.

“UNRWA wants anyone with information about the serious allegations against UNRWA staff to tell the UN investigation. ”

The EU said it will give 50 million euros to UNRWA after the agency agreed to let EU experts check how it checks its staff for extremists. This happened while two UN investigations into Israel’s accusations were already happening.

Hagari shared a recording of a phone call where a teacher from UNRWA talked about what he did in the October. There were 7 attacks.

“We have women who are held captive. ” “I got one,” a man’s voice said in Arabic. A man who is said to be a member of Islamic Jihad and also a teacher for UNRWA, was heard on a second phone call saying “I’m inside with the Jews. ”

The military identified the men, even though the man in the first call said a different name. The army said that the name might have been a nickname. The military did not show proof that they worked for UNRWA.

Benny Gantz, a top leader in Israel during war, met with U.S while facing accusations. “Government leaders in Washington were meeting while negotiations were happening in Egypt to stop the fighting in Gaza before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts next week. ”

At the same time, fighting broke out between Israel and Lebanon, as tensions got worse in the area.

A missile shot from Lebanon into northern Israel killed a person who was not from Israel and hurt seven others on Monday, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service. The Hezbollah group in Lebanon has not said they did the attack on Monday.

Later, a bombing by Israel in southern Lebanon killed three paramedics from Hezbollah’s health group, as reported by Lebanon’s state media.

United States Amos Hochstein came to Beirut on Monday to talk to Lebanese leaders and try to calm things down.

Fights happen often between Hezbollah and Israeli soldiers, and more than 200 Hezbollah fighters and 37 civilians in Lebanon have been killed. About 20 people, including civilians and soldiers, have been killed in Israel.