EU official: Israel has no evidence that UNRWA employees are involved in Hamas attack

EU top humanitarian aid and crisis management official Janez Lenarcic said today that he has not seen any evidence from where to support his claim that UNRWA officials are involved in the attack she launched on October 7th: UNRWA, the UN aid office for Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the wider region, is in crisis after Israel accused about about 10 of its employees of involvement in the Hamas attack. Due to these allegations, the largest donor of the service, the US, as well as some other countries, discontinued funding resulting in the future of UNRWA being now doubtful. Earlier this month the UNRWA chief appeared cautiously optimistic that some donors would return today, although American officials said that the U.S. shutdown may be permanent. The European Commission is also one of UNRWA’s top donors and on 1 March announced that it would pay 50m euros to the agency, but will consider Israeli claims before giving another 32m. Janez Lenarcic, the humanitarian aid and crisis management officer in the European Commission, said that neither he nor – as far as he knows – anyone else in the Commission or another donor have seen evidence of what Israel claims. “Even if these claims are finally proven true, that does not mean that UNRWA is the perpetrator,” he told reporters. In such a case, Lenarcic noted, the principle of individual responsibility should be applied rather than summary justice and the UN’s “unreplaceable” agency will be asked to clean up and continue its work. “UNRWA reacted correctly, immediately, effectively. He took many measures. There’s an investigation going on. We are satisfied so far with all this,” he stressed. “UNRWA has of course a crucial role here because it has infrastructure, warehouses, shelters, curatorial capacity,” he explained.