Falcon powers – The United Nations said the statements made by a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office regarding the United Nations agency assisting Palestinian refugees were “unacceptable” and amounted to a threat.
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric was responding on Wednesday to comments made by Israeli government spokesman David Keyes, who described UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini as “one of the evil ones, sympathetic to terrorists, possibly inciting to kill Jews, and a liar.”
Keyes made his statements against Lazzarini after the latter said that Israeli forces had “recovered millions of documents and seized hostile materials” that allegedly revealed UNRWA employees’ involvement in Hamas attacks in southern Israel on October 7.
Keyes claimed the documents also showed the “deep, systemic infiltration” of the terrorist organizations Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad into UNRWA’s ranks.
The United Nations’ internal oversight body is currently investigating allegations against 14 of UNRWA’s 19 staff members whom Israel claims were involved in the October 7 attacks. One case has been closed due to lack of evidence provided by Israel, and four other cases have been suspended due to insufficient evidence.
Dujarric said “a million documents were not handed over to the Secretary-General,” and a letter containing around 100 names was immediately forwarded to the Office of Internal Oversight Services, the UN’s oversight body.
UNRWA has 32,000 staff in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories, including 13,000 in Gaza providing education, healthcare, food, and other services to several million Palestinians and their families. UNRWA’s facilities in Gaza, where thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter, have been the target of repeated attacks.
