Israel has list of UNRWA staff allegedly also active for Hamas

Israel says it has compiled a list of employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) who are allegedly also active in Palestinian Islamist Hamas.

Israel had identified 108 UNRWA employees to whom this applies and presented a list of them to UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, the Israeli embassy in Berlin announced.

Only a small number of the hundreds of UNRWA employees are said to be employed by Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the embassy said, in information that cannot be independently verified.

A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry said the list was also submitted to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, but has not yet been published by Israel.

UNRWA confirmed on request that it had received "a letter from the Israeli government with accusations against employees working in the Gaza Strip."

The letter contained the list of around 100 people who were said to be members of the military arm of Hamas, the agency said. "UNRWA takes these allegations seriously," it added.

It said it had replied to the letter and asked for information and cooperation. UNRWA said it has no resources to investigate the allegations, such as its own intelligence services.

Israeli accusations about UNRWA staff made headlines in January as Israel said several employees had been involved in the October 7 killings.

But an audit report by independent experts later concluded that UNRWA had established "robust" mechanisms to uphold its principle of neutrality, while noting there was room for improvement.