The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said that some of the agency's employees who were released from the Israeli occupation prison in Gaza reported that they were pressured by the Israeli authorities to falsely state that the agency had ties to Hamas and that employees participated in the October 7 attacks.

These accusations were contained in a report to UNRWA dated February 2024, which includes accounts of Palestinians, including UNRWA employees, about being mistreated in Israeli prisons.

Director of Communications at UNRWA Juliet Touma said that the agency intends to hand over the information contained in the unpublished 11-page report to agencies inside and outside the United Nations that specialize in documenting possible human rights violations.

She added, "When the war ends, there must be a series of investigations to consider all human rights violations."

The report stated that the Israeli army arrested many Palestinian UNRWA employees and that the mistreatment and violations they said they were subjected to included severe physical beatings, threats of drowning, and threats to harm family members.

The report also stated "that the agency's employees were subjected to threats and coercion by the Israeli authorities during their detention, and they were pressured to make false statements against the agency, including that the agency has links to the Hamas movement and that UNRWA employees participated in the atrocities that occurred on October 7, 2023."

(agencies)