The United Nations announced on Wednesday that an independent review group that is assessing whether the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality would submit its interim report officially to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Guterres announced the review last month. The review, led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, followed Israel’s allegations that 12 staff of UNRWA took part in Hamas’ massacre on October 7.
According to the UN statement, the review found that “UNRWA has in place a significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the Humanitarian Principle of neutrality, and the group has also identified critical areas that still need to be addressed.”
“The review group will now develop concrete and realistic recommendations on how to address these critical areas to strengthen and improve UNRWA,” the statement said.
The group will present the final report on the April 20 and that report will be made public.
Israel said that the UNRWA workers who participated in the Hamas massacre kidnapped a woman, handed out ammunition and actively taking part in the massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri, where 97 people were murdered.
In the wake of Israel’s announcement, the US and a host of other countries announced they would temporarily pause funding to UNRWA.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has said that the UN agency had launched an investigation into the employees in question, but he has also insisted he had no knowledge of how deep Hamas is involved in UNRWA, and has accused Israel of "a deliberate and concerted campaign" aimed at ending UNRWA’s work.