Reuters: 190 Employees Of UN Agency Belong To HAMAS Militants

Earlier, the UN said it had received information about 12 such employees of the agency.

190 employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA) have been accused by Israeli intelligence of links to Hamas and involvement in attacks against Israel. Earlier, the UN said it had received information about 12 such employees of the agency. Reuters, which took a look at an intelligence report provided by Israel to the US, reported.

"Based on intelligence information, documents and identity cards of individuals captured during the fighting, approximately 190 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who are UNRWA employees can now be identified," the dossier said.

The dossier, seen by Reuters, claims that some 190 UNRWA staff, including teachers, have joined Hamas or Islamic Jihad militants. It includes the names and photographs of 11 of them.

One of the eleven is a school psychologist accused in the Israeli dossier of helping his son kidnap a woman during the Hamas invasion, when Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 253 kidnapped.

Another UNRWA social worker is accused of being involved in transporting the body of a dead Israeli soldier into Gaza, as well as coordinating the movement of pickup trucks used by militants and weapons shipments.

A third Palestinian in the dossier is accused of taking part in a massacre in the Israeli border settlement of Be'eri, in which a tenth of its residents were killed.

A fourth is accused of taking part in an attack on Reim, in which a military base was overrun and a festival shooting killed more than 360 people.

Asked about the dossier, a UNRWA spokeswoman said she could not comment because of the ongoing UN investigation. It comes after more than 10 countries, including major donors the US and Germany, cut off funding to the agency.

This is a huge problem for the agency, to which more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians turn for daily assistance, and which is already under considerable strain from Israel's war against Hamas.

On 29 January, UNRWA said it would be unable to continue its operations in Gaza and across the region after the end of February unless funding was restored. UNRWA employs 13,000 people in Gaza.

Israel has long accused UNRWA of obstructing the resettlement of refugees, and has at times said that agency staff have been involved in armed attacks against it.

On 29 January, Japan said it was joining other countries in suspending funding to UNRWA following allegations that some of the agency's staff were involved in an attack by Hamas militants on Israel on 7 January.