A top U.N. humanitarian official told Digital that he has “not seen a shred of evidence” suggesting the U.N., through its staff or facilities, was involved in holding hostages in Gaza.
Tom Fletcher, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), addressed claims from former Hamas hostages that they were held in U.N. facilities or by U.N. staff, denying any knowledge of such evidence.
“I have not seen a shred of evidence so far, and I have asked for it, that suggests that U.N. – that there was any U.N. acquiescence in there or involvement in using U.N. buildings or U.N. staff being involved in holding those hostages,” Fletcher stated during a press conference.
He added that the U.N. would investigate any evidence of a U.N. worker involved in terrorism or hostage-taking, offering to lead the investigation himself.
Emily Damari, a former Hamas hostage released in the recent ceasefire deal, claimed she was held at a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) facility. Damari, who holds British and Israeli citizenships, told British Prime Minister Keir Starmer she was denied proper medical care while being held at an UNRWA school.
Fletcher explained that the facility was “a shelter that had been used by the U.N. before we were bombed out of it by the Israelis.” He acknowledged Hamas might have used the facility afterward, but when the U.N. was not “there to stop them from doing that.”
In a statement to Digital, Israeli U.N. Ambassador urged the U.N. to investigate “these very serious claims.”
“We believe the testimonies of the Israeli hostages who went through hell in . Rather than dedicating ample resources and efforts to demonizing Israel, the U.N. should be thoroughly investigating these very serious claims about U.N. complicity in depraved Hamas terrorism,” Danon stated.
Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voices, criticized the U.N.’s “singular pattern of behavior when confronted with the truth about UNRWA and the involvement of U.N. actors in terrorism against Jews: deny, deflect and carry on.”
“Israel has presented mountains of evidence of UNRWA’s participation in the Oct. 7 atrocities, and its ongoing attempts to save Hamas – which the U.N. denies is a terrorist organization,” Bayefsky added. “The ‘see no evil, hear no evil response’ – again – in the face of this gut-wrenching information from a hostage is quite simply, despicable.”
Bayefsky asserted that “as far as the U.N. misinformation machine is concerned, the evidence is never enough.”
Despite Fletcher’s denial of “a shred of evidence,” the U.N. Office of Oversight Services (OIOS), after reviewing , stated, “UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the 7 October attacks.”
The OIOS examined evidence of U.N. workers’ involvement in the attacks and found there was “insufficient” evidence of nine workers taking part in the massacre, while not completely ruling out the possibility. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini stated that the employees in question “cannot work for UNRWA.”
reached out to a representative for Damari’s family but received no response regarding Fletcher’s comments.