Opinion | UN aid agency protests against Israeli attacks

The war in Gaza resulted in a blatant disregard for the United Nations mission, including outrageous attacks on the staff, facilities and work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

These attacks must stop and the world must act to hold perpetrators accountable.

As I write this, our agency has confirmed that at least 192 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza. More than 170 UNRWA buildings have been damaged or destroyed. UNRWA schools have been destroyed; some 450 displaced persons have been killed while seeking refuge in UNRWA schools and other buildings. Since October 7, Israeli security forces have arrested UNRWA staff in Gaza who claim they were tortured and ill-treated during their detention in Gaza and Israel.

UNRWA staff are regularly harassed and humiliated at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The agency’s facilities are used for military purposes by the Israeli security forces, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.

UNRWA is not the only UN agency in danger. In April, World Food Programme and UNICEF vehicles were hit by gunfire, apparently unintentionally but despite coordination with Israeli authorities.

The attack on UNRWA has spread to East Jerusalem, where a member of the Jerusalem municipality has helped instigate protests against UNRWA. Demonstrations are becoming increasingly dangerous. At least two arson attacks have been carried out on our UNRWA compound, and a crowd, including Israeli children, gathered outside our compound chanting “Let the UN burn.” On other occasions, protesters threw stones.

In addition to threatening the work of our staff and mission, Israeli officials are also delegitimizing UNRWA by labeling it a de facto terrorist organization that promotes extremism and by branding UN leaders as terrorists who collaborate with Hamas, setting a dangerous precedent for routine attacks on UN staff and buildings.

How is this possible? Where is the international outrage? Its absence is a license to disregard the United Nations and opens the door to impunity and chaos. If we tolerate such attacks in the context of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, we cannot uphold humanitarian principles in other conflicts around the world. This attack on the United Nations will further weaken our tools for peace and defense against inhumanity around the world. It must not become the new norm.

Despite its longstanding hostility to UNRWA, Israel launched a campaign following the heinous attacks of October 7 to equate UNRWA with Hamas and portray the organization as a sponsor of extremism. In a new dimension of this campaign, the Israeli government made serious allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the Hamas attacks.

There is no question that those accused of criminal acts, including the deplorable attack on Israel, must be investigated. That is exactly what the United Nations is doing. They must be held criminally accountable and, if found guilty, punished.

The Office of Internal Oversight Services, the UN system’s top investigative body, is overseeing this investigation. It is investigating allegations against 19 of the 13,000 UNRWA staff in Gaza. So far, one case has been closed because there was no evidence. Four cases have been suspended because there was insufficient information to pursue them. A further 14 cases are still under investigation.

But we must distinguish the behavior of individuals from the agency’s mission to help Palestinian refugees. It is unfair and dishonest to attack UNRWA’s mission on the basis of these allegations.

Aside from these cases, there have been other allegations of collaboration with Hamas, which I believe have made UN humanitarian workers and resources legitimate targets – in the eyes of some. This is a danger to UN staff everywhere. The world must take a firm stand against the illegitimate attacks on the United Nations, not just on Gaza and the Palestinians, but on all nations. The adoption of Resolution 2730 on the protection of humanitarian personnel by the UN Security Council last week is a welcome development.

The international community has means to address the commission of international crimes, such as through the International Criminal Court. However, the scale and scope of the attacks on UN staff and facilities in the occupied Palestinian territory over the past seven months require the urgent establishment of a dedicated, independent body of inquiry through a UN Security Council or General Assembly resolution to establish the facts and identify those responsible for the attacks on their facilities. Such a body of inquiry can ensure accountability and, crucially, help reaffirm the inviolability of international law.

We must seriously defend the UN institutions and the values ​​they represent before we symbolically dismantle the United Nations’ founding charter. This can only be achieved through principled action by the nations of the world and a commitment by all to peace and justice.