United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has announced the creation of an independent panel to evaluate the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The aid agency has come under fire following accusations from Israel that 12 of its employees were involved in Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
More than a dozen countries – including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden – have suspended funding to the agency.
The independent panel will be led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, who will work with three European research organizations, the UN said in a statement.
The goal of the investigation is “to assess whether the agency is doing everything in its power to ensure neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious violations when they are made.”
European research groups working on independent evaluation are the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, the Chr Michelsen Institute in Norway and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
The panel is due to submit an interim report to Guterres at the end of March and a final report at the end of April with, if necessary, recommendations for “improving and strengthening” the agency’s mechanisms.
The assessment is separate from an internal investigation launched by the UN last month after accusations were first brought against the 12 UNRWA employees.
The Hamas attacks on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,139 people, most of them civilians, according to an Tel Aviv Tribune tally based on official Israeli figures.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that the UN agency had been “totally infiltrated” by Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said he looked forward to the review group’s findings.
“I welcome the appointment by the UN Secretary-General of an independent review panel to assess how UNRWA ensures its neutrality and responds to allegations of serious violations. I look forward to the findings and recommendations of the report being made public,” Lazzarini said in a social media post.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Monday that his government had evidence linking the agency to “terrorism” and planned to submit it to the U.N. panel.
“We will present all evidence highlighting UNRWA’s links to terrorism and its detrimental effects on regional stability. It is imperative that this committee get to the bottom of the truth,” Katz wrote on the social media platform X.
An Israeli intelligence file claims that around 190 UNRWA employees, including teachers, are also believed to be Hamas or Islamic Jihad fighters, the Reuters news agency reported.
Palestinian officials have accused Israel of falsifying information to tarnish UNRWA. The UN fired nine of the accused workers, condemned “the alleged heinous acts” and opened an investigation into the allegations.
Lazzarini is traveling to three Gulf states this week to drum up support after donors suspended funding to the agency. It warned last week that it could be forced to shut down operations by the end of February if funding did not resume.
Lazzarini told the to provide aid to two million people in Gaza.
Spokeswoman Juliette Touma told the Reuters news agency that Lazzarini would travel to Qatar and Kuwait later this week.
“We hope that those who suspended (funding) will reconsider their decision and that others will also take a step forward,” she said.
Kuwait and Qatar rank 19th and 20th in the list of UNRWA’s top 20 donors, giving $12 million and $10.5 million, respectively, in 2022. The United Arab Emirates was not on the list.
Separately, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said his government would grant 3.5 million euros ($3.8 million) to the agency to help it maintain its activities in the short term .
Touma noted, however, that this amount was far from enough to close the gap estimated at around $440 million.
Promising to eliminate Hamas, Israel launched a devastating bombing and ground attack on Gaza, killing at least 27,478 people, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian authorities.
More than 80 percent of Gaza’s population was displaced and large swaths of the territory were reduced to rubble during the Israeli campaign.