On Monday, March 4, 2024, Israel accused the United Nations of taking too long to respond to the claims of sexual assault by Hamas militants a charge the UN has robustly defended itself against as it published a report detailing evidence of Hamas rapes and assaults. At the heart of the increasingly bitter row is the embattled UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), which has already seen funding pulled by multiple Western countries after Israel accused about a dozen of its employees of involvement in the October 7 attack.
UNRWA declared on Monday that members of its own staff had been tortured by Israel, even as the Israeli military said the agency had employed more than 450 "terrorists." The military also released what it said were recordings of "a terrorist working as an Arabic teacher at a UNRWA school... describing his entry into Israeli territory and stating that he is holding female Israeli hostages" following the October 7 attack.
UNRWA employs around 30,000 people in the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria – with about 13,000 staff in the Gaza Strip. It is at the center of efforts to provide humanitarian relief in Gaza, where aid groups warn of looming famine after nearly five months of Israeli bombardment.
UNRWA said Israeli authorities had "detained several of its staff from the Gaza Strip" who later described abuses in custody. "Our staff have reported atrocious events while they were detained and during interrogations by the Israeli authorities. These reports included torture, severe ill-treatment, abuse, and sexual exploitation," UNRWA said in a statement. "Some of our staff have conveyed to UNRWA teams that they were forced to sign confessions under torture and ill-treatment" while being asked about Hamas's October 7 attack.
Forced confessions were being used to spread misinformation and put UNRWA staffers at risk, the agency said, adding a written protest was sent to Israel – but no response was received. "(The) IDF denies general and unsubstantiated claims regarding sexual abuse of detainees in the IDF's detention facilities," the military said. "These claims are another cynical attempt to create a false equivalency with the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war by Hamas."
Following the earlier Israeli allegations about involvement in the Hamas attack, UNRWA fired the accused employees and began an internal probe. The European Commission, recognizing steps taken by the UN, said Friday it would release $54 million in UNRWA funding.
Phillipe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, has said Israel provided no evidence against his former employees and warned that dismantling UNRWA would be "short-sighted." "By doing so, we will sacrifice an entire generation of children, sowing the seeds of hatred, resentment, and future conflict," he told the UN General Assembly.