Dossier reveals how UN workers allegedly aided Hamas

The Israeli dossier, presented to US officials on Friday, lists the names and jobs of the UNRWA employees and the allegations against them.

The dossier said that Israeli intelligence officers had established the movements of six of the men inside Israel on October 7 based on their phones; others had been monitored while making phone calls inside Gaza during which, the Israelis say, they discussed their involvement in the Hamas attack.

Three others got text messages ordering them to report to muster points on October 7, and one was told to bring rocket-propelled grenades stored at his home, according to the dossier.

The Israelis described 10 of the employees as members of Hamas, the militant group that controlled Gaza at the time of the October 7 attack. Another was said to be affiliated with another militant group, Islamic Jihad.

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Yet seven of the accused were also said to be teachers at UNRWA schools, instructing students in subjects such as math and Arabic. Two others worked at the schools in other capacities. The remaining three were described as a clerk, a social worker and the storeroom manager.

The most detailed accusations in the dossier concerned a school counsellor from Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, who is accused of working with his son to abduct a woman from Israel.

A social worker from Nuseirat, in central Gaza, is accused of helping to bring the body of a dead Israeli soldier to Gaza, as well as distributing ammunition and co-ordinating vehicles on the day of the attack.

The Israeli accusations come against the backdrop of decadeslong frictions with UNRWA. Since 1949, the agency has cared for the families of Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes during the wars surrounding the creation of the state of Israel.

The organisation provides vital aid to more than 5 million Palestinian refugees scattered across the Middle East, whose future and status have never been resolved despite years of negotiations.

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But to its critics, including many Israelis, the agency is an obstacle to resolving the conflict. Its very existence, they say, prevents Palestinian refugees from integrating into new communities and stokes their dreams of one day returning to what is now Israel – a goal that Israel says it will never allow. And in Gaza, Israel argues, UNRWA has fallen under the influence of Hamas, a claim the agency rejects.

This is not the first time the United States has cut off money to the UN agency. The Trump administration suspended aid as part its efforts to pressure the Palestinian leadership to stop demanding that refugees be allowed to return to Israel.

But the current threat to its funding is considered to be the gravest in its history because it comes at a time of crisis for Gaza.

Amid warnings of famine, the collapse of the health system and the massive displacement of the Palestinian population, UNRWA’s work is considered more important than ever. It helps co-ordinate the distribution of the supplies of aid – however meager – that arrive each day in southern Gaza, and its schools provide shelter to more than 1 million people in Gaza, according to the agency’s statistics.

The funding suspensions may be felt quickly. Unlike other UN agencies, UNRWA has no strategic financial reserve. Guterres said services might need to be reduced beginning in February.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.