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US Cuts off Funding for UN Aid Agency in Gaza

A displaced Palestinian takes a break while on the move after the Israeli army asked residents of Khan Younis camp to leave their homes and go to Rafah camps near the Egyptian border, south of the Gaza Strip, 26 January 2024. (EPA)
A displaced Palestinian takes a break while on the move after the Israeli army asked residents of Khan Younis camp to leave their homes and go to Rafah camps near the Egyptian border, south of the Gaza Strip, 26 January 2024. (EPA)
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US Cuts off Funding for UN Aid Agency in Gaza

A displaced Palestinian takes a break while on the move after the Israeli army asked residents of Khan Younis camp to leave their homes and go to Rafah camps near the Egyptian border, south of the Gaza Strip, 26 January 2024. (EPA)
A displaced Palestinian takes a break while on the move after the Israeli army asked residents of Khan Younis camp to leave their homes and go to Rafah camps near the Egyptian border, south of the Gaza Strip, 26 January 2024. (EPA)

The Biden administration has temporarily suspended assistance to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees following allegations that some of its employees took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.  

The State Department said Friday it was “extremely troubled” by the allegations and had paused additional aid to the UN Relief and Works Agency pending a review of the claims and any action the UN takes to address them.  

It said Secretary of State Antony Blinken had spoken to UN chief Antonio Guterres on Thursday to inform him of the decision, which is a significant reversal from the administration’s past support for UNRWA.  

Blinken had visited UNRWA’s offices in Jordan just a month ago and praised the agency’s work in Gaza while lamenting the deaths of dozens of its employees in the conflict.  

“We welcome the decision to conduct such an investigation and Secretary General Guterres’ pledge to take decisive action to respond, should the allegations prove accurate,” the department said of the UN probe.  

“We also welcome the UN’s announcement of a ‘comprehensive and independent’ review of UNRWA. There must be complete accountability for anyone who participated in the heinous attacks of October 7,” it said.  

Shortly after taking office, the Biden administration resumed funding to UNRWA that had been cut off during Donald Trump’s presidency.

The head UNRWA said he fired several employees and ordered an investigation following Israel's allegation that some of the agency's staff took part in the October 7 attacks.

In a statement Friday, Philippe Lazzarini described the allegations as “shocking.” He said his agency condemns the attacks, in which militants killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. He called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages to their families.

Lazzarini said Israeli authorities provided his agency with information about the alleged involvement of several employees in the attacks. The refugee agency, which provides education, medical care and welfare services to hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, has tens of thousands of employees.

“Anyone who betrays the fundamental values of the United Nations also betrays those whom we serve in Gaza, across the region and elsewhere around the world,” Lazzarini said.

He said that in addition to the people fired, additional agency employees would be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution, if they were found to have been involved, he said.

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Arab World

Former Israeli Spies Describe Attack Using Exploding Electronic Devices against Lebanon’s Hezbollah

An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
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Former Israeli Spies Describe Attack Using Exploding Electronic Devices against Lebanon’s Hezbollah

An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)

Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents shared new details about a deadly clandestine operation years in the making that targeted Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria using exploding pagers and walkie talkies three months ago.
Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war, The Associated Press said.
The agents spoke with CBS “60 Minutes” in a segment aired Sunday night. They wore masks and spoke with altered voices to hide their identities.
One agent said the operation started 10 years ago using walkie-talkies laden with hidden explosives, which Hezbollah didn't realize it was buying from Israel, its enemy. The walkie-talkies were not detonated until September, a day after booby-trapped pagers were set off.
“We created a pretend world,” said the officer, who went by the name “Michael.”
Phase two of the plan, using the booby-trapped pagers, kicked in in 2022 after Israel's Mossad intelligence agency learned Hezbollah had been buying pagers from a Taiwan-based company, the second officer said.
The pagers had to be made slightly larger to accommodate the explosives hidden inside. They were tested on dummies multiple times to find the right amount of explosive that would hurt only the Hezbollah fighter and not anyone else in close proximity.
Mossad also tested numerous ring tones to find one that sounded urgent enough to make someone pull the pager out of their pocket.
The second agent, who went by the name “Gabriel,” said it took two weeks to convince Hezbollah to switch to the heftier pager, in part by using false ads on YouTube promoting the devices as dustproof, waterproof, providing a long battery life and more.
He described the use of shell companies, including one based in Hungary, to dupe the Taiwanese firm, Gold Apollo, into unknowingly partnering with the Mossad.
Hezbollah also was unaware it was working with Israel.
Gabriel compared the ruse to a 1998 psychological film about a man who has no clue that he is living in a false world and his family and friends are actors paid to keep up the illusion.
“When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad,” Gabriel said. “We make like ‘Truman Show,’ everything is controlled by us behind the scene. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100% kosher including businessman, marketing, engineers, showroom, everything.”
By September, Hezbollah militants had 5,000 pagers in their pockets.
Israel triggered the attack on Sept. 17, when pagers all over Lebanon started beeping. The devices would explode even if the person failed to push the buttons to read an incoming encrypted message.
The next day, Mossad activated the walkie-talkies, some of which exploded at funerals for some of the approximately 30 people who were killed in the pager attacks.
Gabriel said the goal was more about sending a message than actually killing Hezbollah fighters.
“If he just died, so he’s dead. But if he’s wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and efforts,” he said. “And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of ‘don’t mess with us.’ They are walking proof of our superiority all around the Middle East.”
In the days after the attack, Israel's air force hit targets across Lebanon, killing thousands. Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated when Israel dropped bombs on his bunker.
By November, the war between Israel and Hezbollah, a byproduct of the deadly attack by Hamas group in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, ended with a ceasefire. More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants, health officials have said.
The agent using the name “Michael” said that the day after the pager explosions, people in Lebanon were afraid to turn on their air conditioners out of fear that they would explode, too.
“There is real fear,” he said.
Asked if that was intentional, he said, “We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are. We can’t use the pagers again because we already did that. We’ve already moved on to the next thing. And they’ll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is.”