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UNRWA: Israel Arrested, Tortured Our Employees

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini during a joint press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman (EPA)
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini during a joint press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman (EPA)
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UNRWA: Israel Arrested, Tortured Our Employees

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini during a joint press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman (EPA)
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini during a joint press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman (EPA)

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, said on Sunday that aid is hardly arriving to the Gaza Strip, noting that the agency's employees have been arrested and tortured by Israel, and forced to confess to crimes they did not commit.

In a joint news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman, Lazzarini said that despite the international community's calls, Israel invaded and attacked the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah on May 6, with half of Gaza's population forced to flee.

He pointed out that the two main crossings in the south, Rafah Crossing and Kerem Shalom Crossing, have turned into conflict zones, and there are currently no crossings to transport aid across the borders.

Lazzarini noted that “198 UNRWA employees were killed, 160 sites were completely or partially destroyed, and employees were arrested, tortured, and forced to confess to crimes they did not commit.”

In January, Israel alleged that 12 UNRWA employees had participated in the October 7 Hamas attacks against Israel.

Later in April, an independent review for the United Nations said Israel failed to support its claims.

Safadi said UNRWA continues to play its role in the Gaza Strip despite all the pressures, affirming that Jordan is committed to supporting the UN Agency.

“The UNRWA role is indispensable and cannot be replaced by any other party because no other party has the ability, knowledge or capabilities that this agency possesses to help the Palestinian people who are facing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.

The Minister added that “the situation in Gaza is still catastrophic and is still worsening at all levels, even if enough food is brought into Gaza, which is not the case.”

Safadi noted that accusations levelled at 12 out of 13,000 UNRWA staff were refuted, “and the attempt to assassinate UNRWA politically failed.”

He said, “The report issued by the independent committee headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna confirmed that the agency has all the tools to ensure that what it does is in line with all principles of conduct, ethics and UN charters and regulations.”

Despite all the pressures, the Jordanian Minister affirmed that UNRWA is doing everything it can “to provide aid to 2.3 million Palestinians who are now suffering from this brutal war and its inhumane consequences of killing, destruction and the absence of food, medicine, treatment and education.”

But the Agency is still facing major financial challenges, according to Safadi, who said 16 countries stopped funding UNRWA after the Israeli accusations first surfaced.

He noted that 14 of them reversed their decision and announced the resumption of support for the UN agency.

Safadi also said the kingdom demanded an international investigation into what it said were many war crimes committed during Israel's military campaign in Gaza.

He added that those responsible for documented crimes should be brought to justice.

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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)
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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.”