Islam Times - US Report Raises Doubts About Israel's UNRWA Accusations

Islam Times - A US intelligence assessment has raised doubts about Israel’s accusations against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), citing the regime’s bias against the UN agency.

A National Intelligence Council (NIC) report, released last week, assessed with "low confidence" that a few UNRWA staffers had participated in the October 7 operation launched by the resistance movement against the occupying entity.

The four-page intelligence report indicated that the NIC could not independently confirm the allegations. Earlier this year, the Israeli regime claimed that 12 employees of UNRWA were involved in the attack.

Tel Aviv also alleged that 10% of all UNRWA's 12,000 workers have links to Hamas. However, the NIC noted that while UNRWA does coordinate with Hamas, which governs Gaza, there was a lack of evidence to suggest broader collaboration with the resistance movement.

The NIC report added that Israel has not "shared the raw intelligence behind its assessments with the US." The Wall Street Journal cited sources familiar with the report, saying it highlighted Israel's bias against UNRWA.

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, recently accused Israel of waging a campaign to destroy the main UN agency in the besieged Gaza Strip, believing that abolishing the aid agency would resolve the status of Palestinian refugees.

The regime's accusations against UNRWA, which lacked public evidence, led over 10 donor countries, including the US, Germany, the EU, Canada, and Japan, to suspend financial support, risking the agency's ability to provide essentials like food, water, and hygiene supplies to nearly the entire population of Gaza.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 in response to the Palestinian resistance movement's operation, which aimed to counter the regime's long-standing violence against Palestinians. The war has displaced 1.9 million people in Gaza and killed at least 29,514 Palestinians and injured more than 69,616 others.