BEIRUT: The employment of nine staff working for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — who were alleged by Israel to have aided Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks — was ended in an “exceptional, swift decision” even before corroborating the allegations against them, said the agency’s chief on Friday.
UNRWA’s Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini explained that he followed a “reverse due process” in terminating the contracts, and did not probe Israel’s claims before the dismissals, reported The Guardian on Friday.
Addressing a press conference in Jerusalem, Lazzarini said: “No, the investigation is going on now,” when asked if he had probed whether there was any evidence against the staff.
“I could have suspended them, but I have fired them. And now I have an investigation, and if the investigation tells us that this was wrong, in that case at the UN we will take a decision on how to properly compensate (them),” he was quoted as saying. The termination decision was due to the explosive nature of the claims, he added.
He said the agency was already facing “fierce and ugly attacks” at a time when it was providing aid to nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Lazzarini said: “Indeed, I have terminated without due process because I felt at the time that not only the reputation but the ability of the entire agency to continue to operate and deliver critical humanitarian assistance was at stake if I did not take such a decision.”
Discussing the allegations, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a press conference on Thursday: “When there were indications that Hamas had infiltrated UNRWA, I acted immediately in order to guarantee that we do whatever is necessary for UNRWA to be able to avoid any kind of infiltration by Hamas.”
According to the UN chief, the organization received allegations in relation to 12 names, and those allegations were credible.
Guterres said: “Now, if the allegations are credible, you are dealing with a high risk. And when you are dealing with a high risk, and you have rules and regulations that allow you to do so, you, I believe, should do what I did — which was to terminate immediately the contracts based on the so-called best interests of the organization, which is what the rules and regulations allow me to do.”
He elaborated that the investigation team was immediately on the ground, and added: “And if I had made any mistake, it can be corrected in the future.”
He stressed the organization could not run the risk of not acting immediately as the accusations were related to criminal activities that were dangerous.
Guterres revealed that he was surprised to read in the press that the military and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel were unwilling to share information with the UN.
He said: “Even worse, I read in the press that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t expect me to act. I mean, I can’t imagine that this was a trap.”
According to The Guardian’s report, the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services is investigating the allegations and is due to report its preliminary findings within weeks. A separate independent review of the agency’s risk management processes is being led by the former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.
Lazzarini said the agency was operating in a “hostile” environment and it had faced new “restrictions” since Israel’s allegations were made public.
Israeli claims against UNRWA staff were not corroborated before employment was terminated, says Lazzarini
https://arab.news/2n9uv
Israeli claims against UNRWA staff were not corroborated before employment was terminated, says Lazzarini
- Organization’s commissioner general said ‘No, the investigation is going on now,’ when asked if he had probed whether there was any evidence
- Decision to fire staff was due to the explosive nature of the claims
Israel PM says killing of Hamas chief ‘beginning of the end’ of Gaza war
- “While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it’s the beginning of the end,” Netanyahu said
- Iran's UN mission says Sinwar’s killing would lead to the strengthening of “resistance” in the region
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the killing of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in the Gaza Strip was the “beginning of the end” of the year-long war in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli military said that after a lengthy hunt, troops had on Wednesday “eliminated Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip.”
Hamas has not confirmed his death.
Netanyahu, who vowed to crush Hamas at the start of the war, hailed Sinwar’s killing, saying: “While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it’s the beginning of the end.”
He had earlier called Sinwar’s death an “important landmark in the decline of the evil rule of Hamas.”
The chief of Hamas in Gaza at the time of the October 7 attack that sparked the war, Sinwar became the militant group’s overall leader after the killing in July of its political chief, Ismail Haniyeh.
He is said to have masterminded the October 7 attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures that includes hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s announcement of Sinwar’s death comes weeks after it assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a strike in Lebanon, where the Israeli military has been at war since late September.
With Hamas already weakened more than a year into the Gaza war, Sinwar’s death deals an immense blow to the organization.
US President Joe Biden, whose government is Israel’s top arms provider, said: “This is a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world.”
“There is now the opportunity for a ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
Militants also seized 251 hostages during the October 7 attack and took them into Gaza. Ninety-seven remain there, including 34 who Israeli officials say are dead.
Following the attack, Netanyahu vowed to defeat Hamas and bring home all the hostages.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 42,438 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures which the UN considers reliable.
Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi said: “We are settling the score with Sinwar, who is responsible for that very difficult day a year ago.”
He vowed the military would keep fighting “until we capture all the terrorists involved in the October 7 massacre and bring all the hostages home.”
Some Israelis hailed the news of Sinwar’s death as a sign of better things to come.
“I am celebrating the death of Sinwar, who has brought us nothing but harm, who has taken people hostage,” said one Israeli woman, Hemda, who only gave her first name.
Attending a Tel Aviv rally demanding the hostages’ release, 60-year-old El-Sisil, who also gave only her first name, said his killing presented a “once in a lifetime opportunity” for “a hostage deal to end the war.”
But whether the Hamas chief’s death will bring the end of the war any closer is unclear.
Warning that the hostages were in “grave danger,” Israeli military historian Guy Aviad said Sinwar’s killing was “a significant event... but it’s not the end of the war.”
Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the Israeli government and international mediators to leverage “this major achievement to secure hostages’ return.”
According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, Biden called him to congratulate him on Sinwar’s killing, with the two leaders vowing to seize “an opportunity to promote the release of the hostages.”
Netanyahu said Palestinian militants should free the hostages if they want to live.
The Israeli military said Sinwar was killed in a firefight in southern Gaza’s Rafah, near the Egyptian border, while being tracked by a drone.
It released drone footage of what it said was Sinwar’s final moments, with the video showing a wounded militant throwing an object at the drone.
With the civilian toll in Gaza mounting, Israel has faced criticism over its conduct of the war, including from the United States.
In northern Gaza’s Jabalia, two hospitals said Israeli air strikes on a school sheltering displaced people killed at least 14 people, though the military reported that it had hit militants.
According to a UN-backed assessment, some 345,000 Gazans face “catastrophic” levels of hunger this winter.
Nearly 100 percent of Gaza’s population now lives in poverty, the UN’s International Labour Organization said, warning that the war’s impact on Gaza “will be felt for generations to come.”
Israel is also fighting a war in Lebanon, where Hamas ally Hezbollah opened a front by launching cross-border strikes that forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes.
Hezbollah said Thursday it was launching a new phase in its war against Israel, saying it had used precision-guided missiles against troops for the first time.
On the same day, Israel conducted strikes on the south Lebanese city of Tyre, where the militant group and its allies hold sway.
The Lebanese National News Agency reported strikes on the Bekaa Valley, after Israel had issued an evacuation warning for civilians there.
The Israeli military said five soldiers were killed in combat in southern Lebanon, taking to 19 the number of troop deaths announced since Israel began raids into Lebanon last month.
In Lebanon, the war since late September has left at least 1,418 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.
The war has also drawn in other Iran-aligned armed groups, including in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.
Iran on October 1 conducted a missile strike on Israel, for which Israel has vowed to retaliate.
Tehran’s mission to the United Nations said Thursday that Sinwar’s killing would lead to the strengthening of “resistance” in the region.
Lebanon crowdfunded ambulances under fire in Israel-Hezbollah war
BEIRUT: Lebanese data scientist and volunteer rescue worker Bachir Nakhal started a crowdfunding effort to buy new ambulances for south Lebanon months ago, fearing Israel’s war in Gaza could spread to his country.
But weeks into Israel’s war with Hezbollah, his worst fears came true when an ambulance he had helped purchase was bombed.
“We were trying to get the number of ambulances up to the bare minimum level,” he told AFP.
“We weren’t expecting the ambulances ... to get directly targeted or bombed,” said Nakhal, who says the vehicle he had raised money for was destroyed in an Israeli strike just four days after the volunteers had received it.
The October 9 strike, which took place in the southern village of Derdghaiya, killed five rescue workers, including the head of the local team and his son, according to the civil defense.
The incident was among what the United Nations says is a growing number of attacks on healthcare in Lebanon, with paramedics, first responders and ambulances increasingly in the firing line.
“More attacks continue to be reported where ambulances and relief centers are targeted or hit in Lebanon,” UN humanitarian agency OCHA said after the Derdghaiya strike.
The Israeli army has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters, though it has yet to produce any evidence.
“Necessary measures will be taken against any vehicle transporting gunmen, regardless of its type,” Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote in Arabic on social media platform X.
Nakhal said a second crowdfunded ambulance, dispatched to the southern city of Nabatiyeh on Monday, was barely on the road for a day when it had a close call with heavy strikes.
Israel had earlier in the war issued an evacuation warning for Nabatiyeh, where Hezbollah and its ally Amal hold sway.
No US role in Israel operation that killed Hamas leader, Pentagon says
- “This was an Israeli operation. There (were) no US forces directly involved,” said a Pentagon spokesperson
WASHINGTON: The US military said on Thursday its forces had no role in the Israeli operation that killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, even if US intelligence has contributed to Israel’s understanding of Hamas leaders who took hostages last year.
“This was an Israeli operation. There (were) no US forces directly involved,” said Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson.
“The United States has helped contribute information and intelligence as it relates to hostage recovery and the tracking and locating of Hamas leaders who have been responsible for holding hostages. And so certainly that contributes in general to the picture.”
“But again, this was an Israeli operation. And I would refer you to them to talk about the details of how the operation went down.”
US announces ‘immigration reprieve’ due to Lebanon conflict
- So-called Temporary Protected Status designation will provide an “immigration reprieve” to eligible Lebanese due to the “ongoing armed conflict”
WASHINGTON: Washington will allow some Lebanese nationals to temporarily remain in the United States and apply for work authorization due to unsafe conditions in their home country, the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday.
The so-called Temporary Protected Status designation will provide an “immigration reprieve” to eligible Lebanese due to the “ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Lebanon,” the department said in a statement.
Those who are approved “will be able to remain in the country while the United States is in discussions to achieve a diplomatic resolution for lasting stability and security across the Israel-Lebanon border,” it added.
Hezbollah began low-intensity attacks on Israeli troops a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
The Lebanon conflict has rapidly escalated in recent weeks, with Israel carrying out extensive strikes at both the border and further inside the country and launching ground operations inside its neighbor to the north.
The United Nations recently said one quarter of Lebanese territory was under Israeli military displacement orders, while the International Organization for Migration has said at least 690,000 people have been displaced by the conflict.
Biden says Sinwar’s death is ‘good day’ for world, ‘opportunity’ for hostage deal, end to Gaza war
- Biden, in a statement, compared it to the feeling in the US after the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden
- Biden said with Sinwar’s death “there is now the opportunity for a ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power”
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: President Joe Biden said Thursday that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by Israeli troops is a “good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world,” and called it an “opportunity” to free Israeli hostages held by Hamas and end the yearlong war in Gaza.
Biden, in a statement, compared it to the feeling in the US after the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, saying the killing of the mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel “proves once again that no terrorists anywhere in the world can escape justice, no matter how long it takes.”
Biden said he would speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to congratulate them “and to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all.”
Biden said with Sinwar’s death “there is now the opportunity for a ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
He praised US special operations forces and intelligence operatives who helped advise Israeli allies on tracking and locating Sinwar and other Hamas leaders over the last year — though the US said the operation that killed Sinwar was an Israeli one.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan called Sinwar a “massive obstacle” to peace. He added, “his removal from the battlefield does present an opportunity to find a way forward that gets the hostages home.”
