Israel claims 12 U.N. aid workers participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. Here's what we know.

Source: Yahoo! News

Israel claims 12 U.N. aid workers participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. Here's what we know.

Andrew Romano·West Coast Correspondent
Mon, January 29, 2024 at 7:52 PM EST·5 min read

In a dossier provided last week to the United States government, Israel accused a dozen employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency of participating in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that left an estimated 1,200 dead in Israel. On Friday, the U.N. said it had fired several employees in response to the allegations. So far, 11 countries — including the U.S. — have frozen funding to UNRWA, the main aid group responsible for schooling, sheltering and feeding hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip, where the reported death toll now stands at more than 26,000. Here are the key facts you need to understand the controversy.

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What is Israel claiming?
According to reports by the Associated Press and the New York Times — both of which obtained the dossier in question — Israel has alleged that 10 of the UNRWA employees had ties to Hamas; that an 11th employee was affiliated with the militant group known as Islamic Jihad; that seven UNRWA employees stormed into Israeli territory on Oct. 7; that one abducted a woman from Israel; and that another brought the body of a dead Israeli soldier to Gaza after distributing ammunition and coordinating vehicles on the day of the attacks. In total, Israeli intelligence has determined that at least 190 UNRWA workers could be considered operatives of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, according to the document.

What evidence has Israel provided?
Israeli intelligence says it based its allegations on cellphone data showing movements inside Israel on Oct. 7, calls inside Gaza to discuss the Hamas attacks and text messages ordering UNRWA workers to report to specific locations on Oct. 7 — including one that told an employee to come equipped with rocket-propelled grenades that had been stored in his home, according to the Times.

Other Western governments have yet to independently verify Israel’s claims, but “American officials say they found them credible enough to warrant suspending aid,” according to the Times. As for the U.N., it condemned “the abhorrent alleged acts” and fired nine of the accused workers. Two others are reportedly dead, and the last is still being identified as part of an ongoing investigation by the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services.

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Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/israel-claims-12-un-aid-workers-participated-in-the-oct-7-hamas-attacks-heres-what-we-know-005243536.html