The United Nations company tasked with aiding refugees within the Gaza Strip doesn’t perform exhaustive background checks of its workers, but it surely delivers a listing of its 1000’s of employees members within the enclave to Israeli authorities yearly, present and former officers within the group mentioned on Monday.
The company, generally known as UNRWA, was thrust right into a disaster over the weekend, after Israel on Friday accused 12 of the group’s workers of taking part within the Hamas-led assaults on Oct. 7 or their aftermath. A number of donor international locations, together with america, have quickly suspended funding to the aid group, elevating considerations that entry to desperately wanted support in Gaza can be in the reduction of.
Juliette Touma, the director of communications for UNRWA, mentioned the company wasn’t geared up to hold out intensive background checks of candidates, however she emphasised it performs reference checks and investigates considerations raised about particular person staffers.
“We’re a humanitarian group, not a authorities,” she mentioned in an interview, noting that the Israeli authorities had not objected to its newest record of workers. The company employs about 13,000 folks in Gaza.
Lior Haiat, spokesman for Israel’s Ministry of International Affairs, confirmed UNRWA shares lists of staff with Israeli officers, however mentioned they embrace minimal data and referred to workers as of many months earlier. Mr. Haiat argued that it was UNRWA’s — not Israel’s — accountability to display screen workers.
UNRWA, the biggest support group in Gaza, introduced on Friday that it will fireplace the workers accused of taking part within the assaults. (On Sunday, the U.N. secretary normal mentioned 9 had been dismissed, and the help company mentioned two have been lifeless.) UNRWA mentioned that the U.N.’s highest investigative physique had began analyzing the allegations.
Matthias Schmale, the director of UNRWA operations in Gaza from 2017 to 2021, mentioned workers signal a pledge to stay impartial, and so they take part in recurring workshops that encourage refraining from partaking in political exercise or violence.
“I feel we did the most effective we will in very tense political circumstances and with restricted assets,” he mentioned, including that the group devoted to imposing neutrality in Gaza was halved throughout his tenure due to the Trump administration’s funding cuts. Tamara Alrifai, one other UNRWA spokeswoman, mentioned that after President Biden restored funding to the company, a few of these positions have been introduced again.
Nonetheless, Mr. Schmale mentioned, those that violated the group’s insurance policies confronted swift penalties. Eight workers, he mentioned, have been dismissed underneath his look ahead to neutrality violations, their use of social media and bodily abuse. One worker, he mentioned, was found to be a member of Hamas’s army wing after UNRWA employees found pictures proving their membership within the militant group.
Mr. Schmale himself has been caught in controversy. In 2021, Hamas accused him of creating remarks that minimized the toll of Israeli strikes throughout a quick struggle in Gaza that yr, and amid protests he was reassigned by UNRWA. He later walked again the feedback and expressed remorse over them.
He mentioned on Monday that the “greatest deterrent” to neutrality violations was self-discipline, noting Palestinians in Gaza wish to hold their jobs with the U.N., particularly due to extreme unemployment within the territory. The tiny enclave, the place greater than two million folks reside, had a virtually 50 % unemployment charge earlier than the struggle.
