Investigations into an additional three cases have been suspended because of insufficient evidence provided by Israel, he said, and eight cases remain under investigation by the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services.
Israel made the allegations in January, prompting major donors, including the United States, to suspend support for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) at a time of dire humanitarian need in Gaza. Israel has since made allegations about seven additional UNRWA staffers, Dujarric said. Of those, an investigation into one “has also been suspended pending receipt of additional supporting evidence,” Dujarric said. “The remaining six of those cases are currently under investigation.”
Investigators with the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services traveled to Israel to meet with Israeli authorities and are expected to travel again in May, Dujarric said.
All of the initial 12 aid workers were immediately fired by UNRWA, although two were reported to have been killed during fighting in Gaza. Of those cases, the United Nations is considering what administrative action to take in the one case that has been cleared and the three in which investigations have been suspended. The employees involved in the seven new cases have been placed on administrative leave without pay.
Israel has long called for UNRWA to be dismantled, saying that Palestinians displaced decades ago when the state of Israel was established and their descendants should not be considered refugees. The U.N. agency, established in 1949 to help Palestinians driven from their homes during the creation of Israel, serves millions of people in the region.
Israel has repeatedly alleged since Oct. 7 that many of UNRWA’s 13,000 staffers in Gaza have ties to Hamas and other militant groups.
According to an independent assessment of UNRWA’s procedures released earlier this week, Israel has not provided evidence that significant numbers of workers of the aid agency have links to these groups.
Many countries that paused funding to UNRWA have reinstated their support, amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, new assurances of oversight and the review — led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna — which said the agency “established and updated a significant number of” mechanisms to uphold neutrality in recent years but is also in need of key reforms.
In response to the Colonna report, Israel again alleged — without providing evidence — that more than 2,135 UNRWA workers belong to either Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and that “one-fifth of UNRWA school administrators are Hamas members.”
The U.S. intelligence community did not doubt, but could not verify, Israel’s claims about UNRWA workers on Oct. 7, officials said in February, citing a lack of independent information. The Oct. 7 accusations are under separate review by investigators from the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services, which is expected to release its own report later this year.
The Biden administration has called UNRWA “indispensable” for the provision of humanitarian assistance in Gaza, but all U.S. support was barred until March 2025 in a funding bill passed by Congress last month. The United States has long been the largest donor to UNRWA, providing nearly half of its budget.
Here’s what else to know
- There is “new momentum, new life” to the hostage and cease-fire talks, said national security adviser Jake Sullivan. His remarks to MSNBC on Friday came as an Egyptian delegation visited Israel after the Israeli war cabinet met to discuss hostage deal negotiations, and as Hamas said it was reviewing a proposal from Israel.
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Egyptian and Qatari leaders will be in Riyadh over the next two days for a World Economic Forum meeting. U.N. officials are also set to take part. They are expected to join talks on regional de-escalation “but also hopefully get closer to finding a solution for Gaza” on the sidelines, WEF president Borge Brende said Saturday.
- U.N. officials received reports that at least two children died due to extreme heat in Gaza, UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said. The heat wave in Gaza pushed temperatures to around 104 degrees Fahrenheit in recent days. Lazzarini warned of perils facing displaced Palestinians living with hunger and disease in “greenhouses-like structures under scorching heat.”
- The crew of an Iranian-seized Portuguese-flagged ship affiliated to Israel will be granted consular access and released, Iran’s foreign minister said, the country’s ISNA news agency reported Saturday. Iranian forces seized the MSC Aries, with 25 crew members onboard, in the Strait of Hormuz earlier this month, amid a volatile spate of attacks between Iran and Israel. Mediterranean Shipping Co. did not immediately respond to a request for comment. MSC previously said the crew was safe and that discussions for their release were ongoing with Iranian authorities.
- Washington has not decided whether to cut aid to an Israeli military unit accused of human rights violations, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations. The anticipated decision has stirred tensions with Israel. The Netzah Yehuda battalion, consisting of ultra-Orthodox soldiers, has faced accusations of abuse toward Palestinians before the war in Gaza, according to Israeli media reports.
- A premature Palestinian baby has died after being rescued from the womb of her mother, who was fatally wounded in an Israeli strike in Gaza, the Associated Press reported. Doctors had operated to save Sabreen Jouda after her sister and parents, including her mother who was seven months pregnant, were killed last week, The Post reported. Sabreen died after five days in an incubator with deteriorating health, her uncle told the AP.
- At least 34,388 people have been killed and 77,437 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 261 soldiers have been killed since its military operation in Gaza began.
Claire Parker and Susannah George contributed to this report.
