The Israeli government on Tuesday accused the UN agency for Palestine refugees (Unrwa) of “fundamental compromise”, including allowing the Islamist movement Hamas to “use its infrastructure” to carry out its military operations and “to harbor terrorists”. for AFP.

The agency, whose employees Israel accuses of involvement in the Oct. 7 attack, also “actively recruited terrorists” among its 13,000 employees in Gaza and “relied on Hamas for aid distribution,” the carrier said. Government spokesman Eilon Levy in a video recording.

He stated that “about 10 percent” of the employees were members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the other major Islamist movement in Gaza, and “about 50 percent were first-degree relatives of these members.”

However, the Israeli government has not provided any evidence to support these claims, which AFP has been unable to verify.

Unrwa, a key actor for millions of Palestinians since its founding in 1949, “is not neutral,” said Aylon Levy.

The agency, whose staff in Gaza is predominantly Palestinian, is frustrated by the accusations made by Israel shortly after the International Court of Justice ruling.

The UN’s top court, invoked by South Africa, asked Israel on Friday to prevent possible acts of “genocide” and to “take immediate measures” to allow the delivery of “humanitarian aid urgently needed by the Palestinians” in the Gaza Strip.

UNRWA said it had suspended most of its twelve members based on information provided by Israel and launched an investigation.

The United States immediately suspended funding to UNRWA, followed by a number of countries, including Romania, Germany, Australia, Italy, Finland and the United Kingdom.

Who are the 12 employees of the UN agency involved in the bloody attack of Hamas on Israel

One of the 12 identified Palestinians, who also have photos in Israeli intelligence files, is a school counselor accused of providing unspecified assistance to his son in the kidnapping of a woman during a Hamas incursion on October 7, 2023, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 253 kidnapped

Another, a UNRWA social worker, is accused of involvement (so far unknown) in moving the body of a slain Israeli soldier to Gaza and coordinating the movement of trucks used by the attackers and the delivery of weapons.

A third Palestinian in the case is accused of participating in a raid in the Israeli border village of Beeri, where 10 percent of the residents were killed.

A fourth Palestinian is accused of taking part in the attack in Reim, where both a military base and a party at a festival were stormed, killing more than 360 people.

“Based on the information gathered, documents and identity cards seized during the fighting, approximately 190 Hamas and PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad) fighters can now be identified as UNRWA operatives,” the file, written in Hebrew, says Reuters. , reports News.ro.

In the cited report, Israeli intelligence agencies accuse Hamas of “methodically and deliberately deploying its terrorist infrastructure in a wide range of UN facilities and facilities,” including schools. Hamas denies it.