
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon delivered a statement to the media Tuesday morning ahead of today's Security Council meeting on the Middle East and following the passage of two bills by the Knesset yesterday outlawing UNRWA, the UN organization that takes care of the descendants of Palestinian Arab refugees.
"For over a year, we have exposed UNRWA-Gaza as a terrorist front posing as a humanitarian agency," Danon began. The scandals tied to UNRWA-Gaza are staggering, almost countless."
"Months ago, we revealed that over 100 UNRWA employees were Hamas operatives, providing their names and Hamas IDs to the UN. Yet no action was taken. More recently, we exposed an UNRWA clinic in Gaza which was being used as a weapons depot and launch site. At the same time, the head of UNRWA's teacher's union in Lebanon was also a Hamas commander," he stated.
The Ambassador said, "Today, I will bring news to the Security Council, and we will share the story of Mohammad Abu Itiwi, an UNRWA employee since July 2022 who also served as a commander in Hamas' brutal Nukhba forces. He himself personally participated and murdered, raped, and abducted Israelis. While Mohammad Abu Itiwi was collecting UN-funded paychecks, he was murdering and kidnapping Israeli civilians."
Danon noted that "following his elimination, UN officials had the audacity to mourn him. The Secretary-General himself, Antonio Guterres, expressed outrage at the death of this terrorist, a man responsible for some of the most savage attacks on innocent civilians in modern history."
"My colleagues, it is legitimate to criticize Israel, to debate the subjects. But it is entirely illegitimate to ignore, dismiss, or to blind oneself to what stands so plainly before us. It is neither legitimate nor moral to disregard the undeniable fact that UNRWA-Gaza has become a front for Hamas. And yet, that is precisely what the Secretary-General is doing."
Danon presented a photograph of Hamas terrorists, including an UNRWA employee, carrying the body of Yonatan Samerano, who was murdered on October 7 and his body abducted to Gaza. The UNRWA worker loaded Yonatan's body into his car, "a grotesque trophy bound for Gaza after his terrorist comrades murdered Yonatan at Kibbutz Be'eri."
"Looking at this horrific image, one must ask, how does kidnapping and killing civilians fit into an UNRWA employee's job description?" Danon wondered. "Where in UNRWA's mandate is this justified?"
"There is no longer any plausible deniability regarding UNRWA's infiltration by terrorists. Nor are there any excuses left. These vile scandals cannot be swept under the rug any longer. This council, the international community, and the entire UN must confront the facts that UNRWA-Gaza is beyond redemption, beyond reform, beyond any justification. We must turn the page now," Danon declared.