9 employees ‘may have been involved’ in October 7 Hamas attack against Israel: UN

“We have sufficient information in order to take the actions that we’re taking – which is to say, the termination of these nine individuals,” UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Monday.

Haq added the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) will need to evaluate any further steps to “fully corroborate”.

Haq was speaking after the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) completed its investigation into the allegations earlier this year by Israel that a total of 19 UNRWA employees were involved in the attack.

“OIOS made findings in relation to each of the 19 UNRWA staff members alleged to have been involved in the attacks,” Haq said.

“In one case, no evidence was obtained by OIOS to support the allegations of the staff member’s involvement, while in nine other cases, the evidence obtained by OIOS was insufficient to support the staff member’s involvement,” he added.

Haq stated all the nine individuals who the investigation concluded may have been involved were men.

He did not give details of what they may have done, but said: “For us, any participation in the attacks is a tremendous betrayal of the sort of work that we are supposed to be doing on behalf of the Palestinian people.”

Haq added that “OIOS was not able to independently authenticate most of the information provided to it that was in the hands of the Israeli authorities”.

“That is information that remains in the custody of Israel.”

In response to the UN announcement, Israel’s military announced UNRWA had hit a “new level of low”.

“Your ‘relief’ agency has officially stooped to a new level of low, and it is time that the world sees your true face,” Lieutenant-Colonel Nadav Shoshani, the military’s international spokesperson, posted on X.

UNRWA employs 32,000 people across its area of operations, 13,000 of them in the Gaza Strip.

Following the Israeli allegations, many governments, including top donor the United States, abruptly suspended funding to the agency, threatening its efforts to deliver aid in Gaza. Several countries have since resumed payments.

The Hamas’s October 7 attack killed nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and almost 250 others were taken captives, according to Israeli officials. Since then, Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 39,600 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.

UNRWA, which has provided essential aid for Palestinians since 1949, has long been targeted by Israel.