DARK CLAIMS

U.N. Aid Agency Staff Procured Weapons, Helped Kidnap Israelis: Intel

About 10 percent of the agency’s staff have links to armed Islamist groups, the Israeli intelligence alleged.

An Israeli intelligence briefing given to U.S. officials alleged that 12 members of the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency had links with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, according to The Wall Street Journal. Six of those United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) employees were allegedly part of the assault, which claimed 1,200 lives in Israel, the intelligence alleged, while another two helped kidnap Israelis, according to the Journal. Others were allegedly involved in procuring weapons and providing logistics for the attack. The briefing—which was partly based on signals intelligence and “interrogations of captured Hamas fighters”—also claimed that about 1,200 of UNRWA’s estimated 12,000 employees in Gaza have ties to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The U.S. and other major donors to the aid agency have paused funding to the organization—which supports more than 5.6 million Palestinians—in light of the allegations.