UNRWA ‘not as an organization engaged in the conflict,’ US envoy says

Although Washington takes Israel’s allegations that employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency took part in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack “very, very seriously,” it does not believe that the global body’s relief agency for Palestinians is implicated institutionally.

“UNRWA is not, as an organization, engaged in the conflict. They are a U.N. organization that was mandated by the General Assembly to assist the Palestinian people,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told Mark Arum, who hosts an eponymous radio show on Atlanta’s 95.5 WSB station, on Wednesday.

“The Israeli government shared with the U.N. and with us that 12 people in UNRWA, an organization of thousands—that 12 were engaged in some way or another with the attack that took place on Oct. 7,” the U.S. envoy said. “All 12 of those people were removed from their jobs.” One investigation has returned “some very, very strong recommendations on UNRWA reform,” and another is forthcoming, Thomas-Greenfield said, adding that Washington is taking the investigations “very, very seriously.”

Israel, which said that the first investigation yielded “meaningless” and “cosmetic reforms,” is weighing legislation in the Knesset that would classify UNRWA as a terror organization and ban its activities on Israeli soil.

The radio host was apparently convinced by the U.S. envoy’s response about the U.N. agency. “Good answer on that UNRWA question,” he told Thomas-Greenfield, per an official U.S. transcript.