Several reports have emerged from Gaza from Palestinians accusing employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) of stealing humanitarian aid meant for residents who need resources as the war between Israel and Hamas continues.
The allegations, which were also shared by frustrated employees in a UNRWA-related chat room, highlight disturbing systemic corruption within the organization, according to UN Watch.
The chatroom is run by a former UNRWA employee, Haitham al-Sayyed, who was removed from UNRWA in 2016 after he publicly called out the agency for hiding an UNRWA school map that denied the existence of Israel, covered up with a white cloth to hide it from the cameras while UN chief Ban Ki-moon was holding a press conference in June 2016.
In the 17 years he worked for UNRWA, al-Sayyed created several chat rooms for staff and educators to share posts, many of which feature antisemitism, incitement to hatred and Jihadi terrorism.
Today, al-Sayyed continues to operate these chat rooms where he disseminates information about UNRWA salaries and other agency news relevant to employees. Despite recent scrutiny of UNRWA promotion of terorism, and promises of reform, the chat rooms continue to thrive with posts from thousands of employees who were recently celebrating Iran’s attack on Israel.
Many of the posts in the chat room reveal that senior UNRWA staff have been involved in the theft of aid. They highlight how little the organization is doing to stop these abuses. One UNRWA employee expressed frustration at the situation, saying they are “completely dissatisfied with the school administration and its honesty in distributing aid due to the thefts…the displaced people in the external shelter do not get their right to food and non-food aid.”
The user continued, noting that the aid “is distributed at night and sold in front of our eyes, for example with baby pampers, which we were surprised the next day that 150 bags were distributed at night and some of the displaced people did not get their right to it, and everyone who speaks is transferred.”
The complicity of senior officials in the thefts has left employees and Palestinian residents feeling helpless and angry. Another user gave an example of how humanitarian aid is being pilfered in order to make money.
The director of a school warehouse came now with 50 cartons of food that were distributed in UNRWA schools and sold them to a merchant for 350 shekels per carton, equivalent to $100… How did he take out this amount of cartons? Where is the administration about this?”
These reports underscore a troubling trend of deep-seated corruption within the UNRWA that is exacerbating the plight of Gaza residents amid the ongoing military hostilities in the region. Earlier this year, it was also revealed that the agency was employing members of Hamas who participated in the October 7 attacks that ignited the war.
The UNRWA’s Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has called for increased cash assistance to Gazans but acknowledged that although “there is more food available…it still does not mean that the food is accessible.”
Reports from the chat room suggest that the systemic corruption in the agency makes it impossible for Palestinian civilians to receive aid. “Eighty percent of the employees in the shelters that I passed by have no morals or dignity, and they are only concerned with themselves and their loved ones,” one user wrote.
Further complicating the situation is the reality that Hamas has also been stealing humanitarian aid intended for Palestinian civilians in Gaza. They have been taking these resources for their own use. This has prompted Israeli Minister Israel Katz to argue against aid being sent to the region until Hamas has been eliminated. “Hamas is robbing the ‘humanitarian aid’ to the Palestinian people. There’s no reason to give them anything until we eliminate Nazi Hamas,” he said.
These reports expose rampant corruption in the UNRWA, which has quite a sordid history of malfeasance. While the anti-Israel crowd insists on blaming the Jewish state for the lack of resources for Gaza residents, it is obvious that Hamas and the corrupt UNRWA are the ones preventing these individuals from receiving the goods they need to survive as the war rages on. If only those lashing out at Israel had the same energy for those who placed the Palestinians in this situation in the first place.
