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The United Nations on Friday fired 12 of its workers in Gaza and commenced an investigation of them after prices by Israel that that they had helped plan and took part within the Oct. 7 terrorist assault that left 1,400 Israelis lifeless or captured.
The employees, all males and all employed by the U.N. company that aids Palestinians and identified by the acronym UNRWA, are topic to a legal investigation, two U.N. officers mentioned.
A U.N. official, briefed on the accusations, referred to as the allegations “extraordinarily critical and horrific.”
Israel, which offered the allegations to the U.N. earlier this week, has beforehand accused UNRWA, which offers social and teaching programs within the Gaza Strip, of fueling anti-Israeli incitement. The beautiful accusation and the U.N.’s swift response, nevertheless, distinction with earlier U.N. denials of Israeli allegations.
“UNRWA reiterates its condemnation within the strongest doable phrases of the abhorrent assaults,” mentioned Mr. Lazzarini. “Any UNRWA worker who was concerned in acts of terror shall be held accountable, together with by way of legal prosecution.”
The accusations led to swift motion by the US, one of many company’s largest donors, which briefly halted funding to the group. UNWRA has been the principal company overseeing the distribution of help to Gazans amid a rising humanitarian disaster ensuing from the warfare launched within the wake of the Oct. 7 assault.
Mr. Lazzarini mentioned the allegations got here a time when greater than two million Gazans are relying on the U.N. company for meals, medication and different essential help. “Anybody who betrays the elemental values of the United Nations additionally betrays these whom we serve in Gaza, throughout the area and elsewhere world wide,” he mentioned.
Israel and the U.N. have every accused one another of appearing in dangerous religion since Israel launched its warfare in Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assault, which Israeli officers say killed about 1,200 folks. The U.N. has accused Israel of slowing the supply of humanitarian help to the embattled enclave, and Israel has mentioned the world physique has promoted Hamas’s propaganda.
These allegations, nevertheless, are much less politically delicate than the accusation that humanitarian employees might have engaged in an act of terror, an allegation being taken critically by the U.N. secretariat, the US and the European Union, UNRWA’s largest donors.
The U.S. secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, spoke on Thursday with the U.N. secretary normal, António Guterres, and referred to as for “an intensive and swift investigation,” the State Division mentioned. Mr. Blinken additionally informed the U.N.’s chief that the US was asking Israel, which initially made the allegation, for extra data.
UNRWA, or the United Nations Reduction and Works Company, is one in all Gaza’s largest employers, with 13,000 employees, and drives a lot of the enclave’s schooling, well being and meals help operations. In the course of the warfare, it has performed a essential function in overseeing the distribution of meals and medical help in Gaza.
United Nations officers have repeatedly mentioned atypical residents of Gaza are susceptible to hunger and are experiencing a spike in infectious illnesses because the climate will get colder.
Josep Borrell Fontelles, the E.U.’s prime diplomat and vp of the European Fee, mentioned he was “extraordinarily involved” concerning the allegation that U.N. workers had been concerned within the terrorist assaults. He mentioned that the Fee was involved with UNRWA and anticipated it to take fast measures towards the employees concerned.
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