EU: ‘UN Likely Involved In Hamas Attacks Against Israel’ (Worthy News Investigation)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BRUSSELS/AMSTERDAM/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – The European Union said Friday it demands “full openness” about the possible involvement of United Nations aid workers “in Hamas’ terrorist attacks” on Israel.
An investigation is underway into twelve employees of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Worthy News learned Friday.
The Netherlands and the EU are major financial donors, sources said.
UNRWA CEO Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement that Israeli authorities had provided information about the “alleged involvement of employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on October 7.”
He said Friday that after the “shocking allegations,” all suspected employees have been fired and will not escape possible criminal charges.
It was unclear what role they had in the Hamas killings of 1,200 people and the taking of some 250 hostages in Israel on October 7.
In reaction, the United States temporarily halted subsidies to the UNRWA. Additionally, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was “extremely concerned” about the accusations.
EU COMMISSION
He suggested that the EU’s executive European Commission would consider the following steps, but it wasn’t immediately clear if Brussels would take similar steps as Washington.
The EU is the largest international donor of aid to the Palestinians, and UNRWA is one of the primary beneficiaries.
Between 2014 and 2020, the EU allocated 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, according to official data obtained by Worthy News.
EU assistance to the area that Brussels refers to as “Palestine” over 2021-2024 amounts, indicatively, to nearly 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion).
After the Hamas October 7 attacks, Brussels investigated all flows of money to aid groups in the Palestinian territories.
The European Commission announced in late November that “no evidence” had emerged that EU aid was misused for improper purposes. However, on Friday, it announced a relaunch of the investigation.
In the Netherlands, the outgoing Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation said, “the outcome of the investigation will be taken into account in future [Dutch] financial contributions to UNRWA,” Dutch daily De Telegraaf (The Telegraph) reported.
UNDER FIRE
The UNRWA has come under fire before after several scandals.
Following reports of sexual misconduct, intimidation, and corruption, the Netherlands temporarily stopped financial aid to the U.N. agency in 2019.
After several managers were forced to leave, financial aid was resumed by then-Dutch Minister for Development Aid Sigrid Kaag.
However, she too came under fire after it emerged that the Netherlands had at least partly paid the wages of two men suspected of involvement in a bomb blast that killed a 17-year-old girl in Israel.
In 2020, Kaag admitted that the two men had been members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), one of the groups designated as a terrorist organization by the EU.
Yet aid continued, and last year, the Netherlands allocated some 51 million euros ($55.4 million) for Palestinian assistance, Worthy News learned. That makes the country of nearly 18 million relatively one of the largest donor nations.
Kaag recently left Dutch politics to become the U.N. Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza.
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