by Dania Akkad at Middle East Eye
Israeli authorities have not provided “any supporting evidence” to back up allegations that United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees employees are members of groups that attacked Israel on 7 October, a review led by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna has said.
The Colonna report, which was commissioned by the UN to look at Unrwa’s operations and policies in the wake of Israel’s allegations and released on Monday, said Israeli authorities have not responded to letters from Unrwa in March and April requesting names and evidence in order to open an investigation.
The Israeli government, according to the independent review, “has not informed Unrwa of any concrete concerns relating to Unrwa staff since 2011”.
In late January, Israel accused 12 Unrwa employees of participating in the 7 October attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and over 200 were taken back to Gaza as hostages.
As a result of the allegations, Unrwa terminated the contracts of 10 of the employees (two were confirmed dead) and 16 countries paused or froze their financial contributions to the agency, amounting to around 50 percent of the agency’s budget for the year.
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