Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the United Nations Relief and Works Agency of providing false information against Israel to the International Court of Justice at The Hague during a conversation he held with a delegation of visiting ambassadors on Wednesday night.
“Many of the charges, false and unfounded, that were leveled against us in The Hague were brought by UNRWA officials,” Netanyahu charged.
He spoke close to one week after the ICJ issued a provisional order against Israel in which it asked it to refrain from acts that could lead to genocide against the Palestinians but fell short of asking it to stop its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
It listed UNRWA as one of the organizations that provided it with information, on which it based its ruling.
Israel has rejected all genocide accusations and has argued that it is Hamas that seeks to annihilate the Jewish people. It has been said that the Hamas-led October 7 attack against Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and another 253 were seized as hostage, is proof of those genocidal intentions.
“The only time that we've seen anything like that directed against the Jewish people was in the Holocaust,” Netanyahu told the delegation of ambassadors from different countries stationed at the UN headquarters in New York.
Netanyahu: "UNRWA is totally infiltrated with Hamas"
On the same day as the ICJ issued its order, Israel provided UNRWA with information that 12 of its staff members had participated in the October 7 attack. UNRWA summarily fired nine of those staff members.
In the wake of the accusations 18 countries, including the US, have suspended funding to UNRWA. The agency has warned that unless the suspensions are rescinded it would not be able to provide vital humanitarian aid to the 5.9 million Palestinians it services in Gaza, the West Bank, east Jerusalem, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
Netanyahu has persistently called for the agency to be replaced.
He told the ambassadors that “UNRWA is totally infiltrated with Hamas. It has been in the service of Hamas and its schools, and in many other things.
“I say this with great regret because we hoped that there would be an objective and constructive body to offer aid. We need such a body today in Gaza. But UNRWA is not that body. It has to be replaced by some organization or organizations that will do that job.”
He stressed that “it's time that the international community and the UN itself understand that UNRWA's mission has to end.
“UNRWA is self-perpetuating. It is self-perpetuating also in its desire to keep alive the Palestinian refugee issue. And we need to get other UN agencies and other aid agencies replacing UNRWA if we're going to solve the problem of Gaza as we intend to do. There are other agencies in the UN. There are other agencies in the world. They have to replace UNRWA,” Netanyahu stated.
In Washington US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the report was troubling and that UNRWA needs to respond to those charges.
“There has to be full accountability,” he said. Still, he said, “UNRWA’s work is critical and there is no other partner on the ground” that can provide that same level of service.
“In our conversations with the Israeli government they have acknowledged to us at very senior levels” that they recognize the critical role that UNRWA plays, Miller stated.
Guterres: allegations are awful, but UNRWA is necessary for Gazans
In New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged member states to continue to fund UNRWA despite the allegations against it, explaining that he was “personally horrified by them.”
“The United Nations immediately acted following the very serious allegations against UNRWA staff members,” he said.
“Yesterday, I met with donors to listen to their concerns and to outline the steps we are taking to address them.
“I underscored the importance of keeping UNRWA’s vital work going to meet the dire needs of civilians in Gaza, and to ensure its continuity of services to Palestine refugees in the occupied West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
“UNRWA is the backbone of all humanitarian responses in Gaza,” Guterres stated.
“I appeal to all Member States to guarantee the continuity of UNRWA’s life-saving work,” he added.
Norway, a top donor to UNRWA, also urged countries that have suspended funding to the agency to consider the consequences of their actions on the population in Gaza, its foreign minister told Reuters on Wednesday.
It is among those countries that is continuing to fund UNRWA.
"We are discussing the question of funding with other donors and will continue to do so in the coming days and weeks," said Espen Barth Eide, adding Oslo was standing by its "strong commitment to the agency, and to the Palestinian people."
"We urge fellow donor countries to reflect on the wider consequences of cutting their funding to UNRWA," he said.
"UNRWA is a vital lifeline for 1.5 million refugees in Gaza. Now more than ever, the agency needs international support," said the minister.
"To avoid collectively punishing millions of people, we need to distinguish between what individuals may have done and what UNRWA stands for."
Barth Eide said Norwegian officials were informed of the allegations just ahead of the U.N.'s press release on Friday.
"We have not been briefed by Israeli authorities on the matter," he said.
Reuters contributed to this report.