UNRWA chief rejects Israeli allegations of ties to Hamas

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees vehemently defended it Monday against Israeli charges that it employs "terrorists" in Gaza, insisting the body is "on the right side of history".

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini highlighted the heavy toll his agency had paid as it serves as the "backbone" of the vast humanitarian operation underway in war-ravaged Gaza.

At least 223 UNRWA staff have been killed and two-thirds of the agency's facilities in Gaza have been damaged and destroyed since the start of the Gaza war, he pointed out.

He rejected the harsh criticism the agency has faced from Israel, insisting that its work had been "guided by the UN values" and by international humanitarian law.

"As long it is guided by this, whatever the attack can be, I feel that I am on the right side of history," he told reporters in Geneva.

UNRWA, which was created in 1949 to support Palestinian refugees across various countries, saw a series of funding cuts earlier this year after Israel accused more than a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of involvement in the October 7 attack by Hamas.

A series of probes, including one led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some "neutrality related issues" at UNRWA but stressed that Israel had not provided evidence for its chief allegations.

An internal probe published last month found that nine employees "may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October".

But the barrage of accusations has continued, with Israel charging among other things that the agency employs "hundreds of Hamas members and even military wing operatives" in Gaza.

"The terror organisation Hamas has infiltrated UNRWA-Gaza in a systematic and extensive manner," Israeli representative Anat Fisher Tsin told a UN meeting in Geneva Monday.

Israel also slammed UNRWA after announcing Monday that it had "eliminated" Hamas's leader in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif, highlighting that he had been employed by the agency.

"He was a teacher in UNRWA school, a principal in UNRWA school -- and the head of UNRWA teachers' association in Lebanon," Fisher Tsin said.

Lazzarini acknowledged that the agency had received allegations in March that Sharif was "part of the local leadership" of Hamas. He said the agency had immediately opted to suspend him without pay pending an investigation.

The allegation was taken "very seriously", he said, stressing that the agency respects "due process and the principle of rule of law".

He said the investigation was "still ongoing".

Lazzarini alleged there was "a large-scale campaign aimed at undermining the agency".

That has resulted in a dramatic funding shortage.

Lazzarini said the agency currently had an $80-million budget shortfall just to the end of this year.

While next year will be a challenge, he said he remained "quite confident that we will find ways to bridge the gap".