I am fascinated by yesterday’s article in the Times about UNRWA in Gaza. Here are some of the key points.

• Dozens of UNRWA “educators” were members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, most of them “top administrators,” and almost all of the Hamas members “fighters in the Qassam Brigades.”
• The Qassam Brigades wrote, in military plans, that “schools and other civilian facilities” are “‘the best obstacles to protect the resistance’ in the group’s asymmetric war with Israel.” Two schools were listed as “redoubts where fighters could hide and stash weapons.”
• Ordinary Gazans who were interviewed said that “the idea that Hamas had operatives in UNRWA schools was an open secret.”
• Israel told UNRWA that one school principal was a Hamas operator years ago. UNRWA took no action. Hamas records show that he was a member of the “chemistry unit” of Hamas’s “military manufacturing department.” When his involvement in Hamas became public on social media in 2020, Hamas wanted to hack and shut down the social media account.
• Another school principal was a “Hamas member who was issued an assault rifle and a handgun.” UNRWA found a tunnel under his school. He was pictured on social media in front of a Hamas banner. He is still employed by UNRWA, but the agency is investigating him—for the social media violation!
• Another school principal, shown in Hamas records as a “deputy squad commander with engineering expertise,” led a school that next to a tunnel shaft connected to a tunnel under the school “equipped with weapons.” The head of UNRWA said that the tunnel shaft “did not necessarily implicate the principal.” But it put him on leave the day that the Times inquired.
• Here is my favorite one. UNRWA conducts background checks by asking employees to “self-report” and by getting “confirmation of a clean record by way of a letter from the ‘de facto authorities.’” That’s right, they conduct background checks by asking Hamas for information!

When I read reporting like this, I am aghast at the UN’s see-no-evil, hear-no-evil approach to UNRWA. When Israel alleged that twelve UNRWA staffers had taken part in the October 7 massacre, the UN issued a report stating that Israel had “yet to provide supporting evidence” for its claim that “a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations.” Of course Israel has a role to play in reporting to UNRWA on UNRWA’s own employees. But you would think that allegations like this would light a fire under UNRWA’s leadership to clean house, especially after the UN acknowledged that most of the twelve staffers did take part in the massacre and fired them. But the report casts the issue as an HR problem among middle management at a call center in Poughkeepsie. It recommends “outreach and training on neutrality for staff and other personnel,” an “updated Code of Ethics and associated training,” and strengthening “compliance with the Outside and Political Activities Policy,” among other measures. Does the UN not understand that one of its humanitarian arms has been infiltrated by warlike Islamist terrorists, not inadequately trained managerial employees? My goodness.

Image credit: IDF