UN says nine employees 'may have been involved' in Oct 7 Hamas attack

The United Nations said Monday that nine employees of its agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) "may have been involved" in the October 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas, which sparked war in Gaza, and have been fired.

"We have sufficient information in order to take the actions that we're taking -- which is to say, the termination of these nine individuals," UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Haq said the organization will need to evaluate any further steps to "fully corroborate" the allegations.

Haq was speaking after the UN's oversight body, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, completed its investigation into the allegations earlier this year by Israel that a total of 19 UNRWA employees may have been involved in the attack.

"In one case, no evidence was obtained by OIOS to support the allegations of the staff member's involvement, while in nine other cases, the evidence obtained by OIOS was insufficient to support the staff members' involvement," Haq said in a statement.

But in the other nine cases, "the evidence obtained by OIOS indicated that the UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October," Haq said.

In a statement, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said those individuals "cannot work for UNRWA," insisting that staff must respect its policies, insisting on the "humanitarian principle of neutrality."

After the announcement, the international spokesman for Israel's army, Lieutenant-Colonel Nadav Shoshani, said that UNRWA had "stooped to a new level of low."

Stressing that UN internal investigations are confidential, Haq said he had no further information on the content of the accusations and evidence.

Investigators traveled to Israel to review Israeli information and to Amman to obtain information from UNRWA.

However "since information used by Israeli officials to support the allegations have remained in Israeli custody, OIOS was not able to independently authenticate most of the information provided to it," Haq said.

Likewise, for security reasons, UN investigators also did not meet with the accused employees or potential witnesses, but received recorded video statements from some of those involved, the UN said.

- Funding at stake -

Israel's allegations had prompted many governments, including top donor the United States, to abruptly suspend funding to the agency, threatening its efforts to deliver aid in Gaza. Several countries have since resumed payments.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel's campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,550 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry, which does not give breakdowns of civilian and militant deaths.

UNRWA, which has provided essential aid for Palestinian refugees since 1949, has long been criticized by Israel.

Earlier this year, Lazzarini called for Israel to "stop its campaign" against the organization, citing "outrageous" attacks on its employees, facilities and operations.