Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant with a request to investigate the concealment of UNRWA's involvement in the October 7th massacre from the political echelon during several cabinet meetings.
In his appeal, Smotrich wrote: "The expose published in the New York Times shows that that information about the involvement of UNRWA employees in the massacre carried out by Hamas on Israeli citizens on Simchat Torah, allegedly came to the US's knowledge 'by chance' from a report by the UNRWA CEO who received the information 'by accident' from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which itself received the information 'by accident' from sources in the IDF Intelligence Directorate."
Smotrich noted that "the article notes that the IDF opened an investigation into how the information 'leaked' and are not at all convinced that it the organization's operations should be stopped, despite its involvement in terrorism."
He added: "Between the lines, the article says that the IDF had information on the UNRWA employees' involvement in the massacre for quite a while, as well as information on the similarity between UNRWA and Hamas and the involvement of the organization, its employees, and facilities in the fighting against the IDF in Gaza. Despite this, the above-mentioned information was not given to the Security Cabinet in real-time and we were only made aware of this in the past days due to the suspension of funding by UNRWA's supporting nations. "
According to Smotrich, "If the information was indeed in the hands of the Intelligence Directorate and was obscured from the political echelon due to the Intelligence Directorate's will for UNRWA to continue operating in the Gaza Strip and the fear that the information would lead to a political decision to halt UNRWA's operations, this is a very severe incident."
He explained: "This is not marginal information and a marginal policy component, but rather a strategic event that can influence the objectives of the war as the cabinet set them, and first and foremost the destruction of Hamas's governing and civil capabilities - an objective that is totally upended by the continued operations of UNRWA and its transfer of humanitarian aid to Hamas in a way that preserves Hamas's power over the civilian population.:
The Minister concluded: "I therefore request to receive the following information: A. Since when did the IDF know about the UNRWA employees' involvement in the massacre? B. Did the political echelon receive the aforementioned information and if so when and who? C. If the information was given to someone in the political echelon, why was it not brought to the attention of and discussed by the cabinet, and specifically why was it not mentioned during recent cabinet meetings that discussed alternatives to directing the humanitarian effort and my demand since the war began to stop UNRWA's operations? D. If the information was indeed hidden from the political echelon who in the IDF is responsible for this and how do you intend to deal with them?"