NEW YORK CITY: The former minister of foreign affairs of France, Catherine Colonna, will lead an independent review group tasked with assessing whether the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is doing all it can to ensure the neutrality of its employees, and to respond to allegations of serious breaches when they are made, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the largest UN organization operating in the region, has been in turmoil since late January when Israeli authorities accused 12 of the agency’s employees of involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel.

The agency acted swiftly to fire the workers in question but despite this, its largest single donor, the US, and a growing number of other countries have put on hold the funding they provide to the agency, which employs about 13,000 people in Gaza alone.

Guterres said the allegations came at a time when UNRWA is operating under “extremely challenging conditions to deliver life-saving assistance to the 2 million people in the Gaza Strip who depend on it for their survival, amid one of the largest and most complex humanitarian crises in the world.”

He added that he appointed the review group in consultation with the agency’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, who had requested such an assessment last month.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for Guterres, said “allegations, accusations, innuendos and direct attacks on UNRWA have been going on for some time,” and this is what prompted Lazzarini to request a review of its mechanisms and ways in which they might be strengthened.

Colonna will work with experts from three research organizations: the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Norway, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

Their work will begin Feb. 14. It is expected an interim report will be submitted to the secretary-general by late March, followed by a final report by late April.

The UN said the group will examine existing UNRWA mechanisms and procedures designed to ensure and maintain neutrality, and address any accusations or indications that they were violated.

The investigators will assess the practical implementation of these mechanisms and procedures to determine whether every possible effort has been made to ensure they are applied effectively, and to evaluate their effectiveness and suitability for the task, especially in terms of risk management, taking into account “the particular operational, political and security context in which the agency works.”

This independent external review will run in parallel to an already launched investigation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services into the alleged involvement of agency staff in the Oct. 7 attacks.

“The cooperation of the Israeli authorities, who made these allegations, will be critical to the success of the investigation,” Guterres said.