No evidence for Israeli UNRWA claims
Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of its claims that employees of the UN relief agency UNRWA were involved in the October 7 Hamas attack, an independent review led by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna has said.
The Colonna report, which was commissioned by the UN in the wake of Israeli allegations, found that UNRWA had regularly supplied Israel with lists of its employees for vetting, the Guardian reported.
Israeli allegations of the involvement of UNRWA staff in the Hamas attack on Israel led major donors in January to cut their funding to the agency, the main channel of humanitarian support not only to Palestinians in Gaza but to Palestinian refugee communities across the region.
The funding was cut despite the dire needs of 2.3 million people in Gaza, most of whom have been forced from their homes by the Israeli offensive since October 7 and have been struggling to find water, food, shelter, or medical care.
Most of the donor nations have resumed their funding in recent weeks.