UNRWA Employee Shares with Asharq Al-Awsat Experience of Investigation

UNRWA center targeted by Israeli shelling in northern Gaza (DPA)
UNRWA center targeted by Israeli shelling in northern Gaza (DPA)
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UNRWA Employee Shares with Asharq Al-Awsat Experience of Investigation

UNRWA center targeted by Israeli shelling in northern Gaza (DPA)
UNRWA center targeted by Israeli shelling in northern Gaza (DPA)

Palestinian sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has stepped up its investigations into employees suspected of links to Hamas over the past two months.

This move comes in response to a heightened Israeli campaign against UNRWA, which includes claims of its ties to Hamas.

To counter these accusations, the agency is taking steps to provide evidence that refutes them.

These actions are part of UNRWA’s efforts to protect its humanitarian mission, which has faced increasing challenges amid rising tensions in the region.

In recent years, UNRWA has been targeted by an expanding Israeli campaign, especially following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

The accusations include allegations that its staff were involved in the attacks and helped protect Israeli captives. In response, the Israeli Knesset has sought to ban UNRWA’s operations and cut all ties with the agency.

UNRWA Investigates Employees Amid Israeli Allegations

UNRWA is investigating employees linked to the Oct. 7 attacks, based on names provided in Israeli reports to international agencies.

Sources confirmed that UNRWA has broadened its inquiries to include additional staff suspected of ties to Hamas, relying on connections to those already named by Israel.

One employee, questioned due to his inclusion in these Israeli lists, stated that no evidence linked him to the attack or to Hamas, leading to no action against them.

Speaking anonymously to Asharq Al-Awsat, the employee said the investigations focused on whether staff participated in the attacks or were involved in Hamas-related activities, including hiding Israeli captives.

They noted that the questioning involved both foreign and Palestinian officials and was very detailed, asking about participation in Hamas meetings. Of the 16 employees they knew who were investigated, only three faced genuine accusations.

UNRWA has rejected Israel’s claims, stating it will conduct its own investigation.

Spokesperson Adnan Abu Hasna emphasized that Israel has not provided evidence for its allegations against UNRWA employees over the past 15 years, despite UNRWA submitting annual lists of staff members.

Meanwhile, Israel has continued its accusations, recently announcing the killing of Mohammed Abu Atiwi, identified as a commander responsible for the Oct. 7 attack on a festival in southern Israel. Before that, Israel targeted other UNRWA workers, claiming they were Hamas operatives while distributing aid.

Asharq Al-Awsat has learned that Abu Atiwi, recently named in Israeli reports, had left UNRWA years ago and has no current connection to the organization.

This also applies to several others mentioned in the Israeli lists submitted to the UN.

The news about Atiwi emerged just days before the Israeli Knesset passed a law banning UNRWA’s operations within Israel. Israel had already cut ties with UNRWA in Gaza prior to this decision.

Sources revealed that various international organizations have recently hired UNRWA employees to deliver humanitarian aid in Gaza. These organizations provided employee names to Israel before deployment due to ongoing Israeli claims that UNRWA employs Hamas activists to divert aid.

This measure aimed to prevent further Israeli attacks on UNRWA staff involved in aid distribution.

It is still uncertain how the Knesset’s decision will affect UNRWA. According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the law will mainly impact Palestinians in Jerusalem but will also affect operations in Gaza and the West Bank, blocking aid deliveries and halting funding for employee salaries and services for refugees in those areas. This comes as the region continues to face conflict for over a year.

The new Israeli law banning UNRWA has drawn widespread condemnation from Palestinian, Arab, and international organizations, including the US.

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, warned that dismantling the agency would have devastating effects on the humanitarian response in Gaza.



Kamala Harris: Can Underestimated Trailblazer Beat Trump?

 US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris steps off Air Force Two at Joint Base in Maryland on October 27, 2024. (AFP)
US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris steps off Air Force Two at Joint Base in Maryland on October 27, 2024. (AFP)
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Kamala Harris: Can Underestimated Trailblazer Beat Trump?

 US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris steps off Air Force Two at Joint Base in Maryland on October 27, 2024. (AFP)
US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris steps off Air Force Two at Joint Base in Maryland on October 27, 2024. (AFP)

The call that upended everything for Kamala Harris came on a Sunday morning in July as the US vice president did a jigsaw puzzle at home with her grand-nieces.

"The phone rings, and it´s Joe," Harris told radio host Howard Stern recently. "I got up to take the call -- and then life changed."

President Joe Biden's revelation that he was going to drop out of the 2024 White House race and endorse Harris as the Democratic nominee triggered one of the most remarkable transformations in American politics.

Harris was previously saddled with record low approval ratings for a "veep."

Within a few short weeks she created an election campaign out of nothing. She held rapturous rallies, raised more than $1 billion in funds and brought what she called a burst of joy to a party that had given up hope.

But with the now polls showing the 60-year-old in a dead heat with Republican former president Donald Trump, Harris is in the fight of her life to win on November 5 and become the first female president in US history.

"It's not easy. Usually people run for president for two years, and she's just been running since late July," David Karol, who teaches government and politics at the University of Maryland, told AFP.

- Difficult debut -

Harris was a trailblazer from the moment she entered the White House as America's first female, Black and South Asian vice president.

Yet the trail proved difficult at first. Harris faced withering criticism that she was not up to the job of being a heartbeat from the presidency.

Already criticized for vagueness on policy during a failed presidential run against Biden in 2019, she increasingly became notorious -- like Biden himself -- for "word salads."

Tasked by Biden with getting to the roots of the country´s illegal migration problem, Harris fumbled and granted Republicans an attack line about being a failed "border czar" that they use to this day.

But things began to change in 2022. Harris found her voice when the US Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion.

She rallied around the country on the issue and took on an increasingly prominent role in Biden´s second presidential campaign -- with officials privately admitting she was gearing up for her own presidential run in 2028.

Biden also increasingly tasked her with diplomatic missions on Ukraine and the Middle East.

But few dreamed that the moment for her to take a tilt at the White House would come so soon.

Partly that was because Harris had long been underestimated, by some Democrats and by Republicans alike.

Trump would soon find that the woman he called "crazy" and subjected to sexist and racist taunts was a force to be reckoned with. In their only debate she gained the upper hand by taunting the former president.

- 'Momala' -

Harris, however has deliberately steered away from overtly leaning into her race or her gender during the campaign.

When she does talk about her personal background it has largely been about her Indian-born mother who raised her and her sister alone -- while her Jamaican-born father rarely gets a mention.

Or there's her very public affection for "Second Gentleman" Doug Emhoff.

Famously his children Cole and Emma, who are now her stepchildren, dubbed her "Momala."

She has also used their relationship to call out Trump's running mate J.D. Vance for previously describing top Democrats as "childless cat ladies."

But it is more common to hear her focus on her professional history as a prosecutor and then as California attorney general -- and contrasting herself with Trump, who's bidding to become the first convicted felon in the Oval Office.

Harris has also repeatedly brought up the fact that's she's a gun owner, as she reaches out to Republican voters.

Yet there have also been familiar weaknesses. She remains uncomfortable with the media, and her failure to sit for any interviews for several weeks mid-campaign drew Republican fire.

The question now is whether she can put the puzzle together and shatter America's highest glass ceiling.

"I think she has run a good campaign. And if she loses, some people will say 'oh, that's because she didn't run a good campaign' -- and I think that's wrong," said Karol.