New U.S. Intel Report Has ‘Low Confidence’ in Israel’s Claims against UNRWA

Feb. 26—When a Jan. 26 intelligence assessment from Israel, issued on the same day as the International Court of Justice's finding of probable genocide bi Israel in Gaza, found 12 employees in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to have participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and massacres against Israel, the United States and many other Western countries obligingly responded by suspending funding for the UN aid organization for Palestine. Other world leaders called for UNRWA’s funding be continued, given its vital importance to sustaining the lives of millions of people, who will face certain death without its assistance. Despite this, and despite the fact that Israel’s “assessment” did not present sufficient evidence to back its assertions, the halt in funding has continued. According to a 

Wall Street Journal report on Feb. 21, citing an anonymous source, a U.S. intelligence report on the Israeli charges against UNWRA  concludes with only “low confidence” regarding Israel’s claims about the involvement of the agency's employees in the Hamas attack. The U.S. report believes the claims to be “likely,” but they could not be independently verified.As far as Israel’s broader claim that UNRWA is collaborating with Hamas more generally against Israeli interersts, the U.S. assessment maintained that there was inadequate evidence to suggest that it was true. UNRWA, of course, works with Hamas as part of their aid deliveries, as it is Gaza’s ruling faction, but nothing they had seen went beyond this collaboration, according to the Journal.