The families of those killed in the October 7th Hamas attack on southern Israel have filed a lawsuit in a New York court against UNRWA, accusing the UN agency of contributing to the unprecedented massacre, according to court documents reviewed by AFP on Monday.
UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, has been providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians for decades but is facing a deep crisis after Israel accused 12 of its employees of involvement in the attack.
In an April report, experts led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna found issues with UNRWA’s political neutrality, but Israel did not provide evidence to support its accusations against the agency.
These accusations led several countries to freeze their funding for UNRWA, although most have since resumed their support, except for the United States, Israel’s main diplomatic and military ally.
According to the court documents reviewed by AFP, the families of the victims accuse UNRWA of “spending more than a decade before the October 7th attack aiding Hamas in building its terrorist infrastructure.”
The victims’ families allege that UNRWA “knowingly and in cash, provided Hamas with the U.S. dollars needed to pay arms dealers and buy explosives and other terrorist materials.”
The lawsuit was filed in New York, home to the United Nations headquarters and where UNRWA uses banking services, according to the court documents.
UNRWA has not immediately responded to AFP’s questions regarding the lawsuit.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has consistently called on Israel to stop its “violent campaign” against the agency.
In an article published in late May in The New York Times, Lazzarini stated that “at least 192 UNRWA staff members were killed in Gaza, and more than 170 UNRWA facilities were destroyed or damaged.”
The Hamas attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The attackers took 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, with 42 believed to have died, according to the Israeli military.
In response, Israel has launched a violent campaign of bombings, airstrikes, and ground attacks, killing at least 37,626 people, mostly civilians, in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
