At least some of the evidence Israeli used to allege ties between the UN Palestinian Aid Agency (UNRWA) and Hamas was obtained through the torture of the organization’s staff members, according to a report by the United Nations. After the Israelis made the allegations, the US cut funding to UNRWA. Secretary of State Antony Blinken initially labeled the Israeli assertions as “highly, highly credible.”
On Friday, Reuters reported that it reviewed an 11-page UN investigation into claims that UNRWA had substantial ties with Hamas. “Agency staff members have been subject to threats and coercion by the Israeli authorities while in detention, and pressured to make false statements against the Agency, including that the Agency has affiliations with Hamas and that UNRWA staff members took part in the 7 October 2023 atrocities,” the report says.
The investigation concluded the coercion “included severe physical beatings, waterboarding, and threats of harm to family members,” according to the outlet. UNRWA did not provide transcripts to Reuters, and the Israeli military declined to comment.
Additionally, the UNRWA report found significant abuse of all Palestinians detained in facilities. Reuters said the abuse listed in the report included, “beatings, humiliation, threats, dog attacks, sexual violence, and deaths of detainees denied medical treatment.”
Multiple news outlets and human rights organizations have documented the torture of Palestinians in Israeli detention facilities since October 7. According to +972 Magazine, “Israeli soldiers subjected Palestinian detainees to electric shocks, burned their skin with lighters, spat in their mouths, and deprived them of sleep, food, and access to bathrooms until they defecated on themselves.”
The Tel Aviv-based outlet continued, “Some testified to having been beaten all over their bodies and having cigarettes extinguished on their necks or backs. Several people are known to have died as a result of being held in these conditions.”
In January, Israel announced it had compiled an intelligence dossier that found 12 members of UNRWA had participated in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, also claiming thousands of other staffers had ties to the group. However, several media outlets were allowed to view a version of the dossier provided by Tel Aviv and reported that it did not contain any evidence for the charges.
Still, the White House endorsed the Israeli claims, and Washington led over a dozen Western countries in cutting around $450 million in funds to UNRWA. Tucked into a massive $95 billion supplemental military spending bill is a provision that prohibits aid from going to UNRWA based on the Israeli accusations against the organization.
As it has become increasingly clear that Tel Aviv’s assertions lack substance, an official in Norway said countries that suspended funding were having regrets.
Canada, one of the 16 countries to halt aid to UNRWA, announced it had reversed its decision on Friday. Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen said the move was carried out “in recognition of the robust investigative process underway” into the allegations and the pause in donations was being lifted “so more can be done to respond to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians.”
Humanitarian experts and even the Israeli military have warned that a halt to UNRWA aid would spell disaster for Gaza. “If UNRWA ceases operating on the ground, this could cause a humanitarian catastrophe that would force Israel to halt its fighting against Hamas,” a senior Israeli official told the Times of Israel. “This would not be in Israel’s interest and it would not be in the interest of Israel’s allies either.”
Michael Fakhri, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, posted on X, “Some states decided to defund UNRWA for the alleged actions of a small number of employees. This collectively punishes +2.2 million Palestinians. Famine was imminent. Famine is now inevitable.”
Since the countries have cut funds to UNRWA, 16 premature babies have died from malnutrition related issues, and 20 other people have starved to death. “The child deaths we feared are here,” Adele Khodr, UNICEF’s Middle East chief, explained.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
Evil is, as evil does.
Evil, like rust, never sleeps.
SHOCKED! I AM SHOCKED I TELL YA……………….
Secretary of State Antony Blinken initially labeled the Israeli assertions as “highly, highly credible.”
Highly, highly credible = they said so.
Blinken couldn’t find his behind in the dark. He’s the most clueless nitwit I’ve seen in that position for decades.
…or in the light. Or with both hands and feet.
Highly, highly credible = they said so = It is 100% a lie.
… actually only in the 2nd degree as it was shy of a “slam dunk”.
Canada, one of the 16 countries to halt aid to UNRWA, announced it had reversed its decision on Friday. Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen said the move was carried out “in recognition of the robust investigative process underway” into the allegations and the pause in donations was being lifted “so more can be done to respond to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians.”
Obviously, Canada didn’t feel the necessity of a “robust investigation process” when they halted the aid. These clowns keep exposing themselves.
“Obviously, Canada didn’t feel the necessity of a “robust investigation process” when they halted the aid.” Wars, I don’t want you to get in trouble here. It was Putin’s fault.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/as-gaza-teeters-on-the-brink-of-famine-these-israeli-girls-are-trying-to-block-aid-trucks-at-the-border/ar-BB1jC6Xy
As Gaza teeters on the brink of famine, these Israeli girls are trying to block aid trucks at the border
Praying, singing and snacking, a small group of about 40 people managed
to stop an estimated 200 trucks crossing at Nitzana from Egypt on the
day the ABC was there, according to crossing authorities.
The aid trucks need to start running over them.
That would give them another excuse to officially stop the aid from coming in. “The trucks are driven by Hamas terrorists, already!!”
And another Steven Spielberg movie.
Just tell the Republicans that they’re protesting the death of Black guy strangled by the police. They’ll get on board with that then!
… or, as Alistair Crooke said, just imagine the victims were Jewish.
That won’t work on Republicans. Just because they love Israel doesn’t mean they aren’t antisemitic
From Caitlin Johnson:
Israeli “demonstrators” bringing cotton candy machines and bouncy castles to create a fun, family-friendly atmosphere for their blockades to stop aid trucks from getting into Gaza.
Never ending horror and no end in sight.
Who teaches hate, Hamas or the Zionist Israelis?
And the Freedom loving Democratic societies are silent, so is the pope in Rome, no word of love lost on the starving people, including babies, in Gaza, “nothing as far as I know”.
Biden is the second Catholic president after Kennedy. What a difference.
Kennedy was no saint, or good Catholic either. His term was a disaster for many around the world. I don’t understand why he’s being rehabilitated after putting Jupiter missiles in Turkey leading to the Cuba crisis and betrayed the free Cubans at the Bay of Pigs and put off signing the civil rights bill until after his term was over so he wouldn’t lose the southern votes. . It ALL comes down to just another politician. The Kennedy cult is all cosmetic, he was handsome and had a pretty family and that was exploited on TV and the media. And, there’s absolutely no real evidence he was going to bring the troops home, that myth started with Oliver Stone and became a consensus reality through the film.
Check this out: https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/07/15/was-john-f-kennedy-the-flat-out-absolute-worst-u-s-president-of-the-20th-century-2/
It’s easy to make an assassinated president into a martyr, and martyrs have their reputations and actions in life polished to high chrome.
Then you understand how it works. Even people I have known that weren’t really cool, when they died prematurely, they automatically became saints. I guess it’s a form of projection, like nobody wants to be remembered for who they really are, and an ideal is projected on them.
Kennedy was not perfect, he was learning, he removed the Russian missiles from Turkey in exchange of the Russians remove the missiles from Cuba. He had enemies in the CIA, both Dulles brothers. But he also had the potential to become a great president. He had to deal with powerful organizations like the MIC Eisenhower warned the nation. We will never know, he was assassinated before his term ended.
The head of the CIA was Dulles and he headed the investigation of the assassination as far as I know, an enemy of Kennedy, which makes the investigation so questionable.
I am a senior and after decades of deceptive governments Kennedy appears to me now as one of the last man in office with decency, LBJ lost with the Vietnam disaster, his Great Society lasted only 15 years, not enough time to really succeed. We still have Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, GED, and CC. Reagan immediately started to tear it down and Clinton continued, and we have not had good presidents since. MHO, nothing else. I used to read FP regularly, not anymore.
The things you mentioned happened on his watch and presidency, he wasn’t helpless so don’t give him a pass. Like I said, it’s all cosmetic and speculative. Forget to mention his assassination of the So. Vietnamese President: ”
What the American public did not realize in the fall of 1963 was just
how much the Kennedy administration knew of the coup and of the Central
Intelligence Agency’s covert role in the background plotting that went
on in the weeks prior to the event.https://www.historynet.com/the-assassination-of-ngo-dinh-diem/
Israel has no sense of right or wrong and has lost any sense of humanity. The Jewish State, as in prophecy, is an abysmal failure.
So the Neocons and Israelis turn out to be lying sacks of shit. What a surprise. I haven’t been this shocked since that coyote’s plan to capture that roadrunner backfired on him
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/05/gazan-detainees-beaten-and-sexually-assaulted-at-israeli-detention-centres-un-report-claims
UN reports Palestinians beaten and sexually assaulted at Israeli detention centers.
The UNRWA report says: “Methods of ill-treatment
reported included physical beatings, forced stress positions for
extended periods of time, threats of harm to detainees and their
families, attacks by dogs, insults to personal dignity and humiliation such as being made to act like animals or getting urinated on, use of loud music and noises, deprivation of water, food, sleep and toilets, denial of the right to practice their religion (to pray) and prolonged use of tightly locked handcuffs causing open wounds and friction injuries.
“The beatings included blunt force trauma to the head, shoulders, kidneys, neck, back and legs with metal bars and the butts of guns and boots, in some cases resulting in broken ribs, separated shoulders and lasting injuries,” the report alleges.
“While in an off-site location, several individuals reported being forced into cages and attacked by dogs, with some individuals including a child exhibiting dog bite wounds on release.”
“Tell me your friend and I tell you who you are. ”
Israelis, the Americans and the others are inhumane, trashy people, psychopaths. They have no decency, no mercy not even for helpless babies.
Yes,there is great humanity coming from Hamas,Hezbollah, China,Russia,Sudan,North Korea Hamas terrorists stabbed women’s breasts and broke legs as they raped them,tied families together and then burned them alive,mutilated, kidnapped, and fired missiles at Israeli civilians for years.
Lies and the liars that tell them ^
Only sadistic minds can come up with such allegations, for normal people it is just not plausible unless you have solid, credible evidence to back such sadism up. IDF bums deliberately run over people with heavy military equipment and there is evidence to prove it.
Rachel Corrie ….
Devils.
This should not surprise anyone with a brain. The Zionists in Washington and Tel Aviv and major Democracies like the UK, FRANCE, and Germany have no credibility at all.
Animals don’t do what these dehumanized animals are doing to human beings, young children, they are brutal and without mercy human scum*bags, that includes genocide Joe Biden.
OOOOOOOO Gee, Not just GENOCIDE but tortureb ton elicit FALSE INFORMATION. to use top cut off food to VICTIMS of our Little Welfare Queen and her GENOCIDE….Such NICE PEOPLE or are they..??
GENOCODE JOE… JENOCIDE. JOE… GENOCIDE JOE… GENOCIDE JOE… HAS GOT GOO
NAZIS by ANOTRHER NAME… ZIONISTS
Let’s hope the next level of facist US/Israeli atrocity doesn’t follow the German Nazi playbook close enough to include human skin lampshades.