UNRWA Fires 70 Gaza Employees Amid Mounting Scrutiny Over Hamas Ties

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief

(Worthy News) – The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has fired 70 employees in Gaza with immediate effect, saying the move was necessary “to mitigate safety and security risks” for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA personnel, and agency facilities amid long-running Israeli allegations that Hamas has deeply infiltrated the agency.

Christian Saunders, UNRWA’s acting commissioner-general, said the dismissals followed an internal assessment of the safety and security of the agency’s Gaza operations. However, UNRWA insisted the move was not part of a disciplinary process and did not validate the allegations against the employees, while saying it had repeatedly asked Israel to provide evidence against individual staff members.

Israel has accused UNRWA for years of allowing Hamas operatives to work inside its ranks, use its facilities, and exploit schools and humanitarian infrastructure for terrorist purposes. Since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in Israel, those allegations have intensified, with Israeli officials saying some UNRWA staff participated in the attack and others had ties to terror groups in Gaza.

UN Watch welcomed the firings but accused UNRWA of trying to avoid accountability. Hillel Neuer, the group’s executive director, said the dismissals came after sustained documentation of what UN Watch describes as Hamas infiltration inside the agency, including teachers, principals, and union leaders allegedly linked to terrorist activity.

The controversy has renewed calls for a fundamental overhaul — or dismantling — of UNRWA, which was established in 1949 and today provides aid, education, and health services to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Critics, including Israel, argue the agency perpetuates the conflict by uniquely passing refugee status down through generations, unlike the broader U.N. refugee system.