UNRWA said that some of its employees who were released from Israeli prisons in Gaza said they were pressured to falsely admit that the agency had links to Hamas and that employees participated in the October 7 attacks.

These assertions were contained in an UNRWA report last February, which includes accounts from Palestinians, including UNRWA employees, about their exposure to ill-treatment in Israeli prisons.

UNRWA Communications Director, Juliette Touma, said that the agency intends to hand over the information contained in the unpublished 11-page report to agencies inside and outside the United Nations that specialize in documenting potential human rights violations.

She added: “When the war ends, there must be a series of investigations to look into all human rights violations.”

The report stated that the Israeli army arrested several Palestinian UNRWA employees, in addition to the ill-treatment and violations they said they were subjected to, which included severe physical beatings, waterboarding, and threats to harm family members.

The report also stated, “The agency’s employees were subjected to threats and coercion by the Israeli authorities during their detention, and were pressured to make false statements against the agency, including that the agency had links to Hamas and that UNRWA employees participated in the atrocities that occurred on October 7, 2023.” ".

UNRWA refused a request from Reuters to access transcripts of the interviews it conducted, which contain accusations of making false confessions under duress.

The UNRWA report said that in addition to the violations suffered by agency employees, Palestinian detainees described broader allegations of violations, including beatings, humiliation, threats, attacks with dogs, and sexual violence, noting the deaths of detainees who were denied medical treatment.

UNRWA, which provides aid and basic services to Palestinian refugees, is facing a crisis due to Israeli allegations issued in January that 12 of its 13,000 employees in Gaza participated in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Many other donor countries stopped paying money to the United Nations after Israel claimed that 12 employees of the United Nations organization were involved in the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation on October 7, 2023.

The Israeli army also claimed that Hamas used hidden tunnels under the main office of the United Nations agency in Gaza.

The United Nations quickly opened an internal investigation to shed light on these allegations.

Source: Reuters