Israel Set to Declare UN Relief Group ‘Terrorist Organization’
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel was taking the next step Tuesday on declaring the leading United Nations relief organization for Palestinians a “terrorist organization” after several of its workers were linked to the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7.
The process began with Monday’s vote in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).
It was the first reading of three bills seeking to designate UNRWA as a “terrorist” group, cancel the legal immunity of its staff members, and bar it from operating from Israeli soil altogether.
The pieces of legislation will now be sent back to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for preparation for the second and third readings necessary for the bills to become law, the Knesset announced.
The Bill for Cutting Off the State of Israel’s Relations with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and Declaring it a Terrorist Organization passed 50-10.
The second bill—the United Nations Immunities and Privileges Ordinance (Revoking the Immunities and Privileges of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East)—received support from 63 lawmakers, Worthy News learned.
AUDIO RECORDINGS
The third piece of legislation, the Bill for Stopping the Activity of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), passed the first reading with a vote of 58-8
It came months after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released audio recordings that it says incriminate two additional UNRWA employees who allegedly participated in the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught with some 1,200 people killed and hundreds kidnapped.
That brought the total number of agency workers that Jerusalem says actively participated in the attacks to 14.
“I’m inside, I’m inside with the Jews,” Mamdouh al-Qali, an Islamic Jihad terrorist whom the IDF said was employed as a teacher in a UNRWA school, was heard saying in one recording. “How will you get home?” he was asked on the phone before he said with a laugh: “When I die.”
In another recording, a UNRWA teacher could purportedly be heard bragging about kidnapping Israeli hostages.
“We have female hostages; I captured one!” said the man identified as Yousef al-Hawajara, who Israel said was “a Hamas terrorist” who worked as a teacher at a UNRWA school in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. “Everything’s fine, I hope,” he later said in the recording. “We will enter Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
SEEING SIGHTS
He says that he entered Israel and “saw the sights… They shot them in the eyes… they did actions for liberations, Allah willing.” Asked what he found while in Israel, he said, “One thousand shekels.”
IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that despite the “difficult content,” the military released the audio recordings to “remind and not forget.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant named 12 other UNRWA staffers who allegedly participated in the massacre on October 7.
The IDF said its intelligence showed that some 450 “terror operatives in Gaza,” mostly Hamas members, “are also employed by UNRWA.”
UNRWA said it had fired several of its workers following the controversy.
However, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres insisted that no other agency has the capacity to replace UNRWA, which, in addition to providing humanitarian aid, manages schools and hospitals in Gaza.
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