The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has been at the centre of controversy ever since Israel in January accused about a dozen of its employees of involvement in the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.

On Monday, the Israeli military said UNRWA employed "over 450 terrorists" belonging to groups including Hamas.

"According to intelligence, over 450 terrorists belonging to terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip, mainly Hamas, are also employed by UNRWA," a military statement said.

The military also released what it said were recordings of "a terrorist working as an Arabic teacher at an UNRWA school... describing his entry into Israeli territory and stating that he is holding female Israeli hostages" during the October 7 attack by Hamas.

The Hamas attack resulted in about 1,160 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 30,500 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll from Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry.

UNRWA employs around 30,000 people in the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria -- with about 13,000 staff in the Gaza Strip.

It is at the centre of efforts to provide humanitarian relief in Gaza, where aid groups warn of looming famine after nearly five months of Israeli bombardment.

- UN torture charge -

Also on Monday, UNRWA said Israeli authorities had "detained several of its staff from the Gaza Strip" who later described abuses carried out while they were in custody.

"Our staff have reported atrocious events while they were detained and during interrogations by the Israeli authorities. These reports included torture, severe ill-treatment, abuse and sexual exploitation," UNRWA said in a statement to AFP.

"Some of our staff have conveyed to UNRWA teams that they were forced to confessions under torture and ill-treatment" while being asked about Hamas's October 7 attack.

"These forced confessions as a result of torture are being used by the Israeli authorities to further spread misinformation about the agency as part of attempts to dismantle UNRWA," the agency said.

"This is putting our staff in Gaza at risk and has serious implications on our operations in Gaza and around the region."

UNRWA said it had submitted a written protest to Israel about the detentions but had not received a response.

Israel told AFP on Monday the UNRWA allegations were "baseless".

AFP could not independently corroborate the claims made by Israel's military against UNRWA or the agency's claims about abuses committed by Israeli authorities against its staff.

Several countries -- including the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan -- suspended funding to UNRWA following the earlier Israeli allegations about agency staff members' involvement in the Hamas attack.

The United Nations fired the staff accused by Israel and has begun an internal probe.

The European Commission, recognising steps taken by the UN, said Friday it would release 50 million euros ($54 million) in UNRWA funding.

Phillipe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, has said Israel provided no evidence against his former employees.

Further escalating tensions, Israel's foreign minister said on Monday that Israel had called its ambassador to the United Nations home for "immediate consultations" over what it said was a UN attempt to "silence" information on sexual violence allegedly committed by Hamas.

Israel has criticised the UN for not responding quickly enough to victims' accounts of rape and sexual assault allegedly committed during Hamas's incursion into Israel.

"Hamas's weaponisation of rape and sexual violence should be met with global outrage. It demands a global response," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an army spokesman, said in a statement on Monday.