Israel has yet to provide evidence of Unrwa staff terrorist links, says report

Israel has yet to provide evidence supporting its claims that employees of the UN relief agency Unrwa are members of terrorist organisations, an independent review led by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna has said.

- Julian Borger

The Colonna report, which was commissioned by the UN in the wake of Israeli allegations, found that Unrwa had regularly supplied Israel with lists of its employees for vetting, and that "the Israeli government has not informed Unrwa of any concerns relating to any Unrwa staff based on these staff lists since 2011".

Allegations of the involvement of Unrwa staff in the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel led major donors in January to cut their funding to the agency, the main channel of humanitarian support not only to Palestinians in Gaza but to refugee communities across the region.

The funding was cut despite the dire needs of 2.3 million people in Gaza, most of whom have been forced from their homes by the Israeli offensive since 7 October and have been struggling to find water, food, shelter and medical care.

Most donor countries have resumed their funding in recent weeks. UK ministers had said they would wait for the Colonna report to make a decision on resuming funding. US financial support of Unrwa was blocked by Congress for at least a year following the allegations.

Louis Charbonneau, the UN director at Human Rights Watch, said: "I don't think the findings in the report are particularly surprising.