The UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) said on Friday it had opened an investigation. several suspicious employees participate in Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7 in Israel and that he had severed ties with those employees.

“Israeli authorities provided UNRWA with information about alleged involvement of several UNRWA staff in the horrific 7 October attacks in Israel,” said Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of UNRWA.

“To protect the agency’s ability to provide humanitarian assistance, I have made the decision immediately terminate the contracts of these members employees and begin an investigation to establish the truth without delay.”

UNRWA, established in 1949 after the first Arab-Israeli war, provides services including school education, primary health care and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

UNRWA provided assistance and used its premises to shelter people fleeing Israeli shelling and ground offensives in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attacks, in which Israel said 1,200 people died and 253 were taken hostage.

“These outrageous accusations come as more than two million people in the Gaza Strip depend on the life-saving aid the agency has provided since the start of the war,” Lazzarini said.