What is UNWRA, the United Nations agency accused of employing people alleged to have been involved in the 7 October attacks on Israel?

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA), has been accused of employing a number of people alleged to have been involved in the 7 October attacks on Israel.

Eight countries, including the UK, have withdrawn funding from the agency.

Here, we look at what is UNWRA and what is its role in Gaza?

When was UNWRA founded and what does it do?

Internally displaced Palestinians are pictured in an United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip in October.

The agency, the only one of its kind in the world, was established in 1949 by the UN General Assembly to provides support, education and aid to those living in refugee communities in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Before the recent conflict, it ran a network of schools in Gaza, where up to 80 per cent of people were reliant on its aid. Then, around 500 trucks of aid were entering Gaza every day.

Since the retaliatory attacks on Gaza by Israel, the schools have been closed and repurposed as refugee camps, housing thousands of displaced people across Gaza.

Thousands of UNWRA staff, most of them themselves refugees, have still been working in the camps throughout the conflict. At least 152 UNRWA staff have been killed since the conflict began.

What have UNWRA employees been accused of?

Israel says 12 people who work for UNWRA – which employs 13,000 people in the strip – were involved in the Hamas attacks on its soil on 7 October.

UNWRA says nine of the 12 people Israel says were involved in the attacks have been fired, while one other is known to have died. It is trying to identify the remaining two people. An investigation has been launched into the allegations by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).

Previous allegations have been made against UNWRA teachers who have been accused of teaching anti-Israel material or praising Hamas.

In 2019, then-commissioner-general Pierre Krahenbuhl stepped down after an internal agency ethics report accused him and his “inner circle” of “abuses of authority for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives”.

There have been calls for the current director Philippe Lazzarini to step down amid the current row.

How is UNRWA funded?

UNWRA was already struggling for funding amid global cuts in overseas aid budgets.

Now, eight countries – Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK and the US – have entirely withdrawn their funding for the organisation while the allegations are investigated.

Scotland has donated £750,000 to UNRWA’s flash appeal so far and has said it will not pause funding – however, it is unlikely it had any further payments planned at present.

What is the impact of funding being withdrawn from UNRWA?

UNWRA has warned that the funding withdrawal could be catastrophic in Gaza, where it is the main aid agency working on the ground.

More than 85 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza, approximately 1.9 million people, have been internally displaced during the conflict and are living in refugee camps, a large majority of which are run by UNRWA.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has appealed to the countries which have withdrawn funding to reconsider, warning that UNRWA’s current funding will not allow it to meet all requirements to support the two million people relying on it for survival this month.