UNRWA fires 70 Gaza staffers amid Israeli accusations agency riddled with Hamas operatives

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said it has fired 70 employees in Gaza “to mitigate safety and security risks for the refugees” amid Israeli accusations that many of its staffers were Hamas operatives.

Announcing the move on Thursday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) temporary head Christian Saunders said the firings took place with “immediate effect” and “were taken further to an assessment of the safety and security of UNRWA operations in Gaza.”

However, the statement did not mention Hamas and stated that “the dismissal of the staff is not part of a disciplinary process and does not constitute in any way a validation of the claims made against them.”

“UNRWA has repeatedly asked the Israeli authorities to provide information and evidence to substantiate allegations against individual UNRWA staff members in Gaza, but has received no response to date,” the statement claimed.

Israel has repeatedly alleged and shown evidence that employees of the agency were actively involved in terror groups in the Gaza Strip, and some participated in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion and slaughter.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition

by email and never miss our top stories

By signing up, you agree to the terms

Israel has also shown repeated use of UNRWA infrastructure for terror activities and provided evidence that the agency’s schools incited hatred of Israel and glorification of attacks against Israelis.

UN Watch, the prominent pro-Israel lobbying group at the United Nations, welcomed the move, but accused UNRWA of hypocrisy in refusing to openly acknowledge the links to Hamas.

“Our sustained documentation of UNRWA’s deep infiltration by Hamas — including our UNRWA Terror Network map identifying at least 400 culprits — together with the USAID Inspector General, has finally forced the agency’s hand,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch. “

“For years, UN Watch has exposed how UNRWA teachers, school principals and other employees are intertwined with Hamas, including terror chiefs heading the staff unions. Today’s action, while welcome, is only a small beginning,” said  Neuer.

“This incoherent position — firing people while refusing to acknowledge why — reveals an institution still more interested in protecting itself and its Hamas-embedded workforce than in genuine neutrality or accountability,” UN Watch said.

UNRWA was established in 1949 following Israel’s War of Independence. It provides aid, health and education to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and neighboring Arab countries — Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Some 5.9 million people are registered as Palestinian refugees by UNRWA, because they are descended from Arabs displaced in the 1948 war.

Israel has long argued that UNRWA perpetuates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by using this definition of refugee, the only case in which the status is passed down generationally.

It is one of two UN refugee agencies– while UNRWA caters to Palestinians, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is responsible for all other refugees around the world.

Israel has also long accused UNRWA of letting its educational facilities play host to incitement against the Jewish state and glorification of terrorism.

Since the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, Israel has alleged that some UNRWA staff took part in the shock assault and that over 10 percent of employees in Gaza had ties to terror groups.

A number of freed hostages have also testified after returning to Israel that they were held in captivity in UNRWA schools and facilities, and security cameras on October 7, 2023, captured footage of the terrorists, including an employee of UNRWA, loading hostage Yonatan Samerano into an UNRWA jeep.

In February 2024, the IDF revealed the existence of a subterranean Hamas data center directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza Strip headquarters. The IDF has also repeatedly targeted Hamas command centers and gunmen hiding out in UNRWA schools.

However, some supporters have noted the key role the agency fills in providing relief to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and keeping them from deeper poverty that could fuel violence and terrorism, saying no other body or group is equipped to handle that responsibility.

Washington was long UNRWA’s biggest donor, but froze funding in January 2024 after Israel accused agency staff of taking part in the October 7 attack.