Last Thursday, as a former
@UNRWA employee myself, I received an email from UNRWA's Commissioner-General ad interim, Christian Saunders
@CFSaundersUN, informing staff that he had decided to terminate the employment of 70 UNRWA employees in Gaza with immediate effect. He stressed that the decision was neither a disciplinary measure nor a validation of the allegations made by Israel, noting that UNRWA had repeatedly requested evidence from the Israeli authorities and had received none. Instead, he said the dismissals were intended to mitigate what the Agency considered growing security risks to its staff, beneficiaries, premises, and operations.
There is something deeply unjust about dismissing 70 people while admitting that no evidence was ever provided against them. Allegations are not proof. When accusations alone are enough to end careers and devastate families, due process ceases to be a principle and becomes a privilege.
PS:
@UNRWA terminated my contract, along with those of 621 of my colleagues, simply because we escaped the genocide in Gaza and didn't want our children to be killed in front of our eyes. Many of my colleagues were injured and left on medical evacuations. Others accompanied family members who were seriously wounded. We were all terminated in January 2026 after spending an entire year on forced exceptional leave, despite the fact that many of us continued working online throughout that period.
The funny thing is that "Western" UNRWA employees were not terminated, even though many of them are also outside Gaza. They continue to receive salaries that are at least 15 times higher than ours, not to mention the benefits that come with them. An agency established to care for Palestinian refugees ended up firing Palestinian refugees like myself while retaining and generously paying international staff.
It's a joke. Except it's not funny, because it's real.
@UNWatch