Documents reveal alleged Israeli harassment of Unrwa staff in West Bank

UN staff working with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been subjected to a systematic campaign of obstruction and harassment by the Israeli military and authorities since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza, according to internal UN documents obtained by the Guardian.

- Jason Burke

The documents record hundreds of incidents ranging from the alleged blindfolding and beating of UN staff at checkpoints to the use of UN facilities by Israeli troops as firing positions during raids on refugee camps in which Palestinians were killed.

The documents have been compiled by Unrwa, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The agency has been accused by Israel of collaborating with Hamas in Gaza. It denies the charge and says no solid evidence has been presented to support the allegation.

Juliette Touma, Unrwa's spokesperson, said the incidents in the West Bank where the agency runs 96 schools and 43 health clinics for 871,000 registered refugees - detailed in the internal documents were "part of a wider pattern of harassment that we are seeing against Unrwa in the West Bank and Jerusalem".

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said they had "no issues with Unrwa in the West Bank", adding: "We are not trying to harass them. There is nothing we intentionally do to disturb their important work. We are unable to verify these claims and we have not been presented with evidence. We have a good relationship with Unrwa and other organisations in the West Bank." A barrage of rhetoric aimed at Unrwa by senior officials has inflamed public sentiment in Israel. There have been weekly protests at the agency's field office in East Jerusalem as well as a previously unreported shooting earlier this year when a driver fired a handgun from his car at the driver of an Unrwa truck in the city.