Why Israel is trying to kick the UN out of Gaza

Israel is pushing to kick the United Nations agency responsible for aiding Palestinian refugees out of Gaza after the group fired a dozen staffers over their alleged involvement in the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, officials said. 

Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced the Middle East nation was working to ensure that “UNRWA will not be a part of the day after” in the wake of the staffers’ sackings.  

Katz added that his department was aiming to build support for UNRWA’s ouster with the United States, the European Union, and other nations who provide significant funding to the impoverished agency.  

“We have been warning for years: UNRWA perpetuates the refugee issue, obstructs peace, and serves as a civilian arm of Hamas in Gaza,” the foreign minister said in a post on X.

UNRWA announced Friday that it had fired several staffers after Israel provided the group with intelligence alleging that its employees were involved in the heinous slaughter in southern Israel that left 1,200 dead and 250 kidnapped by Hamas.

The United States quickly announced it was cutting funding to the agency after learning that “12 UNRWA employees may have been involved” in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorists, the State Department said. Since President Biden took office, the US has poured more than $730 million into the UN agency for refugee assistance in the West Bank and Gaza.

Other nations including Canada, Italy, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Finland have since announced they were pausing any additional aid to the agency.

“The UK is appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK Government has repeatedly condemned,” the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the 27-member bloc was looking to “assess further steps and draw lessons based on the result of the full and comprehensive investigation.”

On Saturday, Hamas lashed out against Israel’s “threats” against UNRWA and urged the international body and other countries “not cave in to the threats and blackmail.”

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, said he made the decision to fire the staffers “to protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance” after Israeli intelligence shared 

The agency head added that an investigation was underway and that any staffer found to have participated in terrorist acts “will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.” 

In the wake of Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attacks, Israel has bombarded Gaza for months in an effort to wipe out the terrorist group.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was “horrified” by the news of the UNRWA staffers’ alleged involvement in the terror attacks, and promised that the agency would “conduct an urgent and comprehensive independent review of UNRWA,” his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said. 

The death toll from the bloody war in Gaza has exceeded 26,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, which does not differentiate between civilians and terrorists.

In other developments: 

• IDF troops discovered a tranche of weapons, including dozens of AK-47s, grenades, mortar shells, and explosives fired from drones, during a raid in the Gazan city of Khan Younis. The discovery came amid ongoing operations in and around the city, where Israeli forces killed over 100 Hamas fighters on Tuesday, The Times of Israel reported. 
• Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah sites in the village of Beit Lif and in Deir Aames in southern Lebanon killed four operatives with the Iran-backed terrorist group on Friday, TOI reported. 
• Hundreds of anti-war protesters stopped traffic on the main highway in Tel Aviv Wednesday to demand an end to the fighting in Gaza and for the release of the hostages. 
• A tanker connected to the United Kingdom burned for several hours in the Gulf of Aden Saturday after it was struck by a missile launched by the Iran-backed Houthis, the BBC reported. The Yemen-based terrorist group, which has been targeted by US and UK airstrikes in recent weeks over its assaults on shipping vessels in the Red Sea, said Saturday’s attack was in response to “American-British aggression.”

With Post wires.