An independent panel has called for immediate improvements to maintain neutrality by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) following allegations that 12 aid workers may have participated in a terror attack. The review, headed by French diplomat Catherine Colonna, was specifically focused on assessing UNRWA’s neutrality and did not investigate the allegations against the workers. The panel’s report identified issues related to neutrality, including staff behavior, education, and governance. It found that some UNRWA staff had made public political statements and that there were problematic elements in school textbooks. The report also pointed out that progress had been made in removing biased content from textbooks, but some statements referring to Israel as the ‘Zionist occupation’ or Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital still remained. The panel made several recommendations to improve neutrality, including engaging with donors, promoting staff and behavior neutrality, ensuring neutrality in education, and enhancing governance. UNRWA’s Commissioner General, Philippe Lazzarini, expressed willingness to accept the panel’s recommendations but criticized what he called Israel’s ‘deliberate and concerted campaign’ to dismantle the organization. However, the panel stated that Israel had not provided any supporting evidence for its claims. Israel’s Foreign Ministry responded to the report by calling for donor countries to abandon UNRWA, stating that the report ignored the severity of the problem and offered inadequate solutions. Israel had previously claimed that 450 UNRWA workers in Gaza were ‘terrorists.’ These accusations led to a disruption in funding from international donors, with most nations resuming donations afterward. However, the US and the UK continue to keep a distance, and the US passed legislation halting UNRWA funding until at least March 2025. UNRWA, founded in 1949 to assist Palestinian refugees, provides services to nearly 6 million refugees.