Wall Street Journal 'admits' it's unable to verify January claims linking UNRWA staff to Hamas

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has privately admitted that a claim it made about the UN's Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) staff in Gaza being linked to Hamas has not been verified, according to a recent report.

The claim, allegedly based on Israeli intelligence reports, was that at least 10 percent of UNRWA's staff had ties to the Palestinian group, leading to a number of donor countries to cut support to the agency, which is a vital lifeline for millions of refugees.

However, emails seen by Semafor showed that the WSJ's chief news editor admitted that the claims had not been verified in the months following the article's publication.

"The fact that the Israeli claims haven't been backed up by solid evidence doesn't mean our reporting was inaccurate or misleading, that we have walked it back or that there is a correctable error here," Elena Cherney was quoted by Semafor as saying.

Two members of the WSJ said that the intelligence source linked to the claim did not provide the names of those alleged to have ties to Hamas in order to be verified, with an investigative journalist attempting and failing to verify the staffers' alleged Hamas affiliation through mobile data.

The WSJ has been under further scrutiny from within the publication by staff members who raised concerns over coverage that allegedly favours Israel with a lack of other perspectives and expert sources, Semafor added.

Two sources in the journal also told the news site that an article written by Nancy Youssef and Jared Malsin found that US intelligence could not substantiate the claim and saw a change in the article's headline after complaints from the journalists.

The headline which originally read "U.S. Finds Claims That U.N. Aid Agency Staff Took part in Hamas Attack 'Credible'" was subsequently changed to "U.S. Finds Some Israeli Claims on U.N. Staff Likely, Others Not."

The New Arab has approached the WSJ for comment about the report.

It was reported on Tuesday that UNRWA fired nine staff due to the possibility they could have been involved in the 7 October attacks.

 UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services, which carried out the investigation, noted that it relied on Israeli authorities for the review as independent sources for verification were unavailable due to the challenges in accessing direct information.

Juliette Touma, director of communications at UNRWA, told The New Arab that media should be careful in their reporting on Gaza to avoid amplifying false information.

"This practice is dangerous, and it puts at risk my colleagues at UNRWA, including those working on the humanitarian front line in Gaza," she said.

On the veracity of WSJ's allegations, Touma said: "We encourage the media to refrain from using unverified information."

At the time of publication, the WSJ did not respond to a request for comment. The publication told Semafor that it stands by its January article.

According to UNRWA's figures, 203 staffers have been killed in Israel's war on the enclave, which killed at least 39,623 people and injured more than 91,469.

The publication of the WSJ's article in January came after Israel made allegations that at least 12 UNRWA members had been involved in Hamas 7 October attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people and took around 250 captives.

The allegations prompted several countries to cease funding for the organisation, although much of the funding had been reinstated amid UNRWA and the UN investigations into the claims.

UNRWA has since completed its investigation saying that out of 19 staffers alleged to have taken part in Hamas' 7 October attack one had no evidence against them, nine others had insufficient evidence to support claims of involvement and two of the 19 have died in Gaza since the war began.