AFP
Israel begins to backtrack on allegations against UN agency
Date: Tuesday October 5
JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli army appeared to backtrack on charges Palestinian militants had been allowed to ferry arms in a UN ambulance, even as some government officials continued to lash out at UN staff.
A top Israeli commander revealed that 13 UN employees had been arrested on suspicion of "terrorist activities" only for an army spokesman to clarify later that the staff concerned had been in custody for the past four years.
The head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Peter Hansen, had demanded "an immediate public retraction and apology" from the Israeli government over its allegation that rockets had been carried in one of his agency's vehicles.
Video footage taken by an Israeli drone, which the army had released to back up its allegations, was removed from the force's website Tuesday amid growing expressions of doubt that it showed Palestinian militants loading rockets as officials here had claimed.
Army officers were quoted by the Haaretz newspaper's online edition as saying "it's impossible to swear" the object was not a stretcher.
And an army spokesman told AFP the military was "reviewing the analysis of the footage in which UNRWA vehicles are seen involved in suspect activity in the combat zone in Gaza".
Army radio itself carried an interview with the driver of the ambulance in which he said he had been at the scene to evacuate a Palestinian wounded by Israeli fire.
"Another ambulance had already ferried him away, so I came back with the folded stretcher and threw it back in the ambulance," Wael Ghabayin told the radio.
But some Israeli officials stuck by their guns.
Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Danny Gillerman insisted the army was "convinced that the object that was actually put in that UN vehicle was indeed a weapon and not a stretcher."
And a close advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he too had no doubts.
"The footage of the ambulance speaks for itself," said Dore Gold, who is also a former ambassador to the world body.
UN chief Kofi Annan said he would launch an investigation into the controversy, which came as the Security Council readied to vote on a draft resolution urging Israel to end its week-long offensive in northern Gaza and allow the United Nations to do its aid work there.
The atmosphere was further clouded Tuesday when a top Israeli staff officer announced that 13 UN employees were under arrest, clearly hinting that it was in connection with the drone footage.
"We have in hand a list of 13 arrested people against whom charges have been brought," General Israel Ziv said.
"They are UN people against whom charges are provided on their implication in terrorist activities."
However army spokesman Captain Jacob Dalal later clarified that the 13 in question had been held since the outset of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000.
"This information has been taken out of context," he told AFP.
The waters were further muddied by an admission by the UNWRA chief that he could not guarantee that there there were no unarmed supporters of the Palestinian militant groups on his staff, an acknowledgement that was swiftly seized on by Israeli officials.
"Oh, I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime," Hansen told Canadian public television, in a reference to the largest Palestinian militant group, which has wide support in the Gaza Strip.
He stressed, however, that all staff were required to respect "UN standards and norms for neutrality."
Gillerman blasted Hansen's comments as "worrying and incredible" while Dore said that Hansen's acknowledgement "that his organization employs Hamas's terrorists shows the need for an investigation."
It was Gillerman who had prompted a furious UNRWA chief to complain in a protest letter to the Israeli foreign ministry Monday of personal vitriol against him from Israeli officials.
The ambassador had openly called for Hansen's dismissal, charging that he "hates Israel".
SOURCE
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