One in ten workers at UN agency given $1.3BN of cash every year to provide assistance to Palestine is a member of Hamas or Jihad group – and half have a close relative who’s a militant, Israeli intelligence claims

According to an Israeli intelligence report, one in ten members of the UN Palestinian agency in Gaza is affiliated with Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The Wall Street Journal published an exposé on Friday from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which has provided healthcare, food, infrastructure and education in Gaza for decades, with an annual budget of $1.3 billion.

Israeli intelligence now believes that six members of the UNRWA staff in Gaza were among the thousands who took part in the October 7 attack, which rushed across the border into Israel.

Several of the six worked at UNRWA schools, including an Arabic teacher and a math teacher, according to Israeli intelligence reports viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The same sources are calling for the dissolution of UNRWA and estimate that half of its employees have a close relative with active membership in the militant groups.

A child gets food on his bicycle

Flour is distributed by the UN agency in the southern Gaza Strip on November 21, 2023

Benjamin Netanyahu, the controversial Israeli prime minister, told a meeting of UN ambassadors in Jerusalem on Wednesday that UNRWA should be closed.

“UNRWA has been completely infiltrated by Hamas,” he said, adding that it should be replaced by an organization that would operate in a neutral manner.

Israel has long accused the United Nations of being biased, and condemnation has increased after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a halt to the bombing of Gaza. Israel’s UN ambassador said Guterres should resign.

Netanyahu continued: “We need such a body in Gaza today. But UNRWA is not that body.’

Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, said the US has not evaluated Israel’s claims about UNRWA, but called them “very, very credible,” and that the US has stopped funding UNRWA.

We see children queuing for UNRWA meals at Rafah refugee camp on February 1

A child waits outside a UNRWA health center in a refugee camp

A Palestinian man carries bags of flour distributed by UNRWA on February 1

The United States is the largest funder of the United Nations as a whole, contributing approximately $12.5 billion to the United Nations in 2021, the most recent budget year for which complete data is available. The amount amounts to just under one-fifth of the funding for the body’s collective budget.

U.S. officials have also said that the actions of individuals should not undermine the vital work of the entire organization.

Tamara Alrifai, a spokesperson for UNRWA, said Israel needed to be more specific in its accusations and provide details.

‘What qualifies an alleged involvement?’ she said. “Since when is someone responsible for what their cousin does?”

Phillipe Lazzarini, director general of UNRWA, pointed out that those believed to have been involved in the attack had been fired.

He said the West’s funding freeze amounted to “collective punishment.”

The United States under Donald Trump has ended funding for both UNRWA and the UN Population Fund, which funded programs that provided abortions.

But Joe Biden restored UNRWA funding.

The organization has been accused over the decades of either turning a blind eye to Hamas’ activities; supporting it; or be forced to agree to their plans.

Weapons have been found hidden at UNRWA sites and tunnels dug beneath them.

The level of willing cooperation with Gaza’s ruthless rulers, if any, is unknown.

“I cannot say from personal knowledge how intertwined Hamas is with UNRWA,” said James Lindsay, UNRWA’s legal adviser from 2000 to 2007.

He told The WSJ: ‘UNRWA minimizes the problem, and Israel tries to maximize it. The truth probably lies somewhere in between.’