Israel says 450 UN agency workers in Gaza are militants

Head of UNRWA says he hasn’t received any evidence of Israel’s claims

Israel ramped up its criticism of the embattled U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees Monday, saying 450 of its employees were members of militant groups in the Gaza Strip, though it provided no evidence to back up its accusation. Major international funders have withheld hundreds of millions of dollars from the agency, known as UNRWA, since Israel accused 12 of its employees of participating in the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people and left about 250 others held hostage in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

People at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Odaisseh, Lebanon. Pics/AP

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the agency known as UNRWA, told a press conference late Monday that he “has never been informed” or received any evidence of Israel’s claims, and this is not the first. Every year, he said, UNRWA provides Israel and the Palestinian Authority with a list of its staff “and I never have received the slightest concern about the staff that we have been employing.”

‘Credible evidence of sexual violence’

The UN envoy focusing on sexual violence in conflict said in a new report that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Hamas committed rape, “sexualised torture,” and other cruel and inhumane treatment of women during its surprise attack in Israel on October 7. There are also “reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing,” said Pramila Patten, who visited Israel and the West Bank from January 29 to February 14 with a nine-member technical team. Based on first-hand accounts of released hostages, she said the team “found convincing information” that some women and children during their captivity were subjected to the same conflict-related sexual violence including rape and “sexualised torture”.

Turkey detains 7 more alleged Mossad spies

Turkish police on Tuesday detained seven more people suspected of selling information to the Israeli spy agency Mossad, authorities said, the latest in a wave of such arrests in Turkey. The suspects were taken into custody during simultaneous raids in Istanbul, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. The raids were a joint operation with Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization. The detained are suspected of collecting data on individuals and companies in Turkey and selling it to the Israeli intelligence agency, Yerlikaya said. “We will never allow espionage activities to be carried out within the borders of our country.” Last month, seven other people, including private detectives, were arrested on similar suspicions.

7 October
Day Hamas attack on Israel left 1,200 people dead

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