The United Nations stated in a confidential report reviewed by the Free Beacon that the intelligence was likely correct but refused to fire 10 of the 19 staffers Israel identifiedBy Adam Kredo, The Washington Free BeaconA U.N. probe into its staffers’ involvement in the Oct. 7 attack against Israel dismissed key intelligence—including intercepted audio recordings and cell phone data—that connected those staffers to Hamas, a Washington Free Beacon review of confidential U.N. documents found.Investigators with the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) looked into 19 U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) employees’ ties to Hamas based on Israeli intelligence and produced a report, which the United Nations has not released publicly and which the Free Beacon reviewed. It portrays the intelligence as likely authentic yet deems it “insufficient” to support the firings of 10 UNRWA staffers. This was the case with an alleged “Hamas platoon commander” and a second “Hamas operative,” both of whom Israel identified through intercepted phone calls and text messages.The revelation suggests UNRWA may still employ Hamas terrorists who could play a role on the ground if the international organization is allowed to participate in aid distribution in Gaza. As the Free Beacon has reported, at least one senior U.N. official who wishes to restore UNRWA’s control of aid has angled for a prominent position in President Donald Trump’s plans for the territory. UNRWA staffers with ties to Hamas who remain in good standing with the international organization, meanwhile, could transfer to other U.N. agencies.The United Nations cited this investigation in August when it announced it would not fire 10 of the employees Israel identified. U.N. bodies have used the results to claim reports of UNRWA involvement with Hamas are “not substantiated,” as the International Court of Justice did when it ruled late last month that UNRWA should reassume control of humanitarian aid deliveries in post-war Gaza, over Israel’s objections.The report includes multiple instances in which the United Nations waved off Israeli intelligence with few—if any—attempts to corroborate the evidence, undermining the United Nations’ announcement and its attempts to play down the relationship between UNRWA and Hamas.U.N. investigators reviewed audio from a phone call between an UNRWA staffer and his son, who allegedly infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7 alongside Hamas. Israeli officials said the audio shows the unnamed UNRWA official “assisted his son and brother in infiltrating Israel and returning to Gaza and participated in the kidnapping of an Israeli woman.”The U.N. report said that while “the speaker alleged to be the staff member’s son made incriminating comments and admissions… about being ‘inside’ Israeli territory and of having taken a hostage, the responding tone, language and utterances appear to be that of a parent outraged by his errant son’s conduct.”In a second case outlined in the report, Israel provided SMS messages and other cell phone data on an alleged Hamas commander in the terror group’s Nuseirat Battalion. The terror group allegedly called the unnamed UNRWA staffer “to the meeting point prior to the infiltration and armed attacks,” according to the intelligence relayed in the United Nations’ report. The staffer allegedly received another text message hours later telling him to bring “two anti-tank missiles” to a location.The United Nations determined the evidence was “insufficient to support the allegations,” saying the UNRWA staffer “denied involvement” when reached by the agency. “No other information” outside of Israel’s intelligence showed the staffer “acted on the messages and engaged in the armed attacks or did anything else to support the incursions.” The U.N. did not investigate ties to Hamas outside participation in the Oct. 7 attacks, the report shows.A third case focused on an UNRWA staffer suspected of helping his brother, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member, kidnap an Israeli on Oct. 7. Israel later detained the UNRWA employee in Khan Yunis, and while he remains in Israeli custody, U.N. investigators stated the “evidence provided by Israeli officials is insufficient to support the allegation.”A senior congressional aide familiar with the report’s findings told the Free Beacon it is clear the United Nations “went in with a certain outlook and plan of how they wanted this to turn out and they were not interested in anything that would potentially counteract the narrative that, to them, Hamas is not a terrorist organization.”“They dismissed all the Israeli intelligence, the phone tracking and data—they dismissed it outright,” the source added. “They were not in any interest of gaining the facts from Israel. It’s pretty disturbing.”The United Nations initiated its investigation in January 2024, after the Israeli government published bombshell evidence detailing the involvement of at least 12 UNRWA staffers in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and after Western governments began pulling financial support from the U.N. body. UNRWA fired those 12 and another 9 after further probes, but 10 others Israel flagged did not meet the international organization’s standards.“In one case,” the United Nations noted in an August 2024 public summary, “no evidence was obtained by OIOS to support the allegations of the staff member’s involvement [in Oct. 7]. That staff member has rejoined the Agency. In nine other cases, the evidence obtained by OIOS was insufficient to support the staff members’ involvement and the OIOS investigation of them is now closed.”Though U.N. investigators acknowledged the evidence often “provide[d] a factual basis to indicate that the subject UNRWA staff member may have engaged in misconduct,” they stated the evidence was “not suitable for the usual human resources review and decision on disciplinary process or other measures.”UN’s abnormal methodologySources briefed on the confidential investigation believe these results came from the United Nations’ abnormal methodology and self-imposed limitations on its investigation. By choosing to consider only what it describes as “clear and convincing evidence” of misconduct, the international organization set an “impossibly high legal standard for a simple administrative action to be taken, let alone criminal prosecution,” a former senior U.S. legal official familiar with U.N. operations told the Free Beacon. “It’s exceptionally frustrating that the U.N.’s standards constrain it from firing an employee where the evidence shows that, more likely than not, he was involved in terrorist activities.”The U.S. Agency for International Development Office of Inspector General (USAID OIG)—a statutory law enforcement agency that continues to operate independently of USAID—has launched its own investigation into UNRWA’s ties to Hamas, sources confirmed to the Free Beacon. This investigation will permit State Department officials to place Hamas-linked UNRWA staff on a publicly available exclusion list, preventing them from recirculating to other U.S.-funded aid organizations, including those seeking to operate in Gaza.“The USAID IG’s independent investigation is welcomed and warranted,” a senior U.S. official responsible for humanitarian assistance in Gaza told the Free Beacon. “The U.N. clearly is unable to investigate itself properly, and the IG’s investigation will protect American taxpayer dollars from funding the salaries of Hamas terrorists shape-shifting as aid workers going forward.”A Western diplomat briefed on the matter told the Free Beacon that shortcomings in the U.N. investigation mean Hamas-tied UNRWA staffers still with the agency could migrate to other U.N. agencies.“Other U.N. officials have expressed privately that there is no guarantee that UNRWA staff implicated in either the October 7 attacks or members of Hamas will be flagged for hiring officials at subsequent U.N. agencies,” the diplomat said. “Nobody wants to become the next UNRWA and onboard individuals linked to Hamas as aid workers, but there are not the systems to protect against such risks.”U.S. government officials are aware of the risk. The USAID inspector general alerted the Biden administration and Congress in June 2024 that U.N. agencies seeking taxpayer assistance are exempt from U.S. vetting procedures.“It is baffling that the U.N. received a free pass in terms of vetting,” a diplomatic official briefed on the USAID OIG’s ongoing investigative work told the Free Beacon. “In order to receive one dime of taxpayer-funded aid, any organization, U.N. or otherwise, should be required to undergo extensive vetting of all staff operating in the region.”The post UN tosses Israeli evidence tying UNRWA employees to Hamas – report appeared first on World Israel News.