Watchdog: UNRWA Staff Stealing and Selling Gaza Aid for Profit

A watchdog group has claimed that employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) have been actively stealing and selling aid for profit that was meant for use in Gaza.

As Fox News reports, the claim was made on Wednesday by UN Watch, a non-governmental organization (NGO) operating out of Geneva, Switzerland. The group pointed to multiple reports by Palestinian witnesses in a UNRWA chatroom, all of whom claimed that the organization’s staff members are stealing aid meant for civilian use and have been selling it. The witnesses also claim that anyone who tries to report these crimes face retaliation from UNRWA.

UN Watch’s report also accuses UNRWA Commissioner-General Philipe Lazzarini of “turning a blind eye” to corruption in his ranks. Lazzarini had recently demanded that countries begin sending more direct cash payments to Gaza rather than aid, claiming that although “there is more food available, it still does not mean that the food is accessible.”

UNRWA has also been accused of anti-Israel sentiment and voicing support for Hamas, the Islamic terrorist organization which carried out the October 7th attack against Israel last year, which led to the deaths of over 1,400 Israeli citizens. The aforementioned UNRWA chatroom is run by former UNRWA employee Haitham al-Sayyed, who was fired in 2016 after he called out the UNRWA for hiding an agency-sponsored map that denied Israel’s existence.

“While Haitham al-Sayyed was supposedly fired from UNRWA, he is still considered by many in the chat rooms as an important figure in the organization who holds sway with the senior administration,” said UN Watch. The report went on to claim that some employees, “frustrated by inaction and even complicity of senior staff in these thefts,” have confessed to al-Sayyed “in the hope that he can get UNRWA’s top officials to listen.”

One UNRWA employee, Mohammed Musa al-Sawalhi, took to the chatroom on February 20th to give his account of several UNRWA employees stealing aid and stashing it in their own houses.

“Eighty percent of employees in the shelters have no morals or dignity,” said al-Sawalhi, who said that the family of one director was captured stealing aid on video.

In response to the bombshell accusations, a spokesman for UNRWA released a statement saying that the group saw this report and are looking at what are very serious claims. We will provide an update when and if we have more information.”