Several Western countries have suspended their aid to the primary humanitarian agency operating in Gaza, following a campaign that relied on Israeli accusations against UNRWA staff for involvement in Hamas attacks.

Amid its ongoing war on Gaza, Israel has launched a persistent campaign against the United Nations and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). The UNRWA Commissioner-General has repeatedly warned against Israel's plan to dismantle the agency, which has been in operation since December 1949, providing health and education services to Palestinian refugees in the occupied territories and several countries.

The campaign led by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for the cessation of funding to the agency, aligning with statements from officials in Benjamin Netanyahu's government expressing a desire to dismantle the agency. This coincides with ongoing airstrikes on UNRWA facilities and the issuance of an International Court of Justice decision to impose interim measures on Israel to prevent violations of the Genocide Convention.

Several Western countries have halted their aid to the main humanitarian agency operating in Gaza, as a result of the campaign, which relied on Israeli accusations against UNRWA staff for involvement in Hamas attacks. This is in addition to parallel campaigns attacking the United Nations.

How did the campaign start?

In late January, several countries, including the United States, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and Australia, announced the cessation of funding for UNRWA following Israeli allegations linking some agency employees to Hamas attacks on October 7th. These allegations were accompanied by a widespread campaign against UNRWA, propagated using various hashtags on X (formerly Twitter), most notably: #DefundUNRWA, #UNRWAisHamas, #DismantleUNRWA

The most interactive of these hashtags was #DefundUNRWA, generating 372,000 tweets, viewed approximately 46 million times, with a potential additional reach of 36 million views. These tweets sparked over 1.5 million interactions.

Retweets comprised the majority of content on the hashtag, accounting for about 57% of total posts, or approximately 212,000 tweets, while original tweets made up only 1.3%, totaling 4,700 tweets.

The hashtag first appeared in late November but surged in popularity at various times over the past three months.

Activity times and nature of interactions on the DefundUNRWA# hashtag - Meltwater

Promoters of Misleading News Among the Most Influential

111,901 accounts participated in promoting the hashtag advocating for defunding UNRWA. At least 100 of these accounts played a significant role in popularizing the hashtag, leveraging their extensive follower count, estimated at the tens of thousands at the least.

@visegrad24, boasting over 900,000 followers on X, contributed to the dissemination of the anti-UNRWA hashtag. This account has a reputation for spreading misleading information since its establishment in 2020. It frequently shares emotionally charged content throughout the Israel-Hamas conflict. Visegrád 24 originated from a right-wing group in Poland and gained increased popularity during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Unofficial reports suggest it receives support from the Polish government.

Israeli influencer Hananya Naftali, followed by 400,000 users, also contributed to amplifying engagement on the hashtag, alleging that UN employees work with Hamas. Naftali is active in disseminating and promoting the official Israeli narrative.

On October 17, when the Al Ahly Baptist Hospital was targeted resulting in hundreds of casualties, Naftali claimed that the Israeli Air Force bombed Hamas targets inside the hospital, stating that "terrorists were killed." However, he quickly deleted his tweet after Israel announced another narrative, suggesting that a missile launched by Islamic Jihad accidentally hit the hospital, leading to the incident. These claims, according to investigations by The New York Times and other journalistic inquiries, have not been substantiated.

Incitement, Ridicule, and Repetitive Content

The hashtag mocked UNRWA and incited against it. Participating accounts used satirical cartoons and memes to promote misleading information about how Gaza residents are appointed within the UN agency.

Repetitive content contributed significantly to the amplification of interaction on the hashtag, pushing Israel's narrative against UNRWA to a wider audience across social networks. Among the repetitive postings were textual phrases describing the organization as "jihadist terrorist," a "tool for killing," and accusing it of "igniting the conflict." One of the recurring images shared under the hashtag depicted rifles and weapons attributed to Hamas fighters, alongside a blue bulletproof vest bearing the United Nations' logo. Accompanying this image was the same comment alleging the involvement of 12 UNRWA employees in Hamas' 7 October attack on the Gaza envelope. What particularly caught our attention was the pristine condition of the bulletproof vest, appearing brand new, while beside it lay a dirtied black bag, suggesting that the vest was added to the rest of the image components.

Other accounts used language to pressure the agency's funders, such as a satirical account named @TheMossadIL, which kept publishing ongoing lists of countries that suspended their funding to UNRWA and those refusing to do so, accompanied by comments criticizing the latter. This account was among the most prominent in mobilizing and rallying to keep the hashtag on the list of the most discussed topics on X.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry spearheaded the attack. The #DefundUNRWA hashtag reached its peak several times. One of these times coincided with the International Court of Justice ruling against Israel on January 26, followed swiftly by Western countries announcing the suspension of funding for UNRWA. This led to UNRWA announcing the termination of contracts for several employees accused by Israel of involvement in a Hamas attack.

Meanwhile, the Israeli official propaganda machine was operating at full throttle in the virtual sphere to tarnish the agency's reputation. The Foreign Ministry led the attack using the hashtag calling for the cessation of UNRWA funding, echoing the same rhetoric promoted by campaign accounts. External accounts such as @IsraelMFA, @IsraelinSpanish, @Israel, and Israeli ambassadors and embassies, especially in India and Latin American countries, appeared on the list of entities attracting the most interaction through the hashtag.

In early March, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini stated before the UN in New York, that there is a deliberate and coordinated campaign against UNRWA, built on misleading news to undermine the agency's operations and end it, affirming, "I have not seen any substantial evidence for the claims."

In a report released in February, UNRWA stated that its employees were subjected to threats, coercion, and pressure from Israeli authorities while detained to make false statements about connections between the agency and Hamas, alleging that some of them participated in the movement's attacks.

The recent wave of the campaign emerged a day after the uproar caused by the Israeli bombing of the UNRWA training center in the Al Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, which killed at least 13 people on January 25.

Lazzarini, in other remarks, mentioned that Israel is working to tarnish the agency's reputation in parallel with the destruction of UNRWA facilities in Gaza, where nearly 1.4 million displaced people reside. Up to February, 155 UNRWA facilities suffered severe damage due to Israeli airstrikes - according to the agency - alongside the deaths of 158 of the organization's employees.

UNRWA employs over 30,000 staff, most of whom are Palestinian refugees. There are over 13,000 UNRWA employees in the Gaza Strip.