UNICEF says it is taking action following allegations that the director of its Washington office, Yahav Lichner, supplied confidential UN documents to Israeli diplomats while working for another UN agency more than a decade ago.

“UNICEF is aware of serious allegations concerning an employee and is taking the appropriate action,” UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters on Friday.

The children’s agency did not specify what action it had taken. A Devex journalist reported, citing two UN officials, that Lichner had been placed on administrative leave, but UNICEF spokesperson Kurtis Cooper declined to confirm that account.

Haq also declined to disclose Lichner’s employment status or say whether the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services was investigating the allegations.

“If true, such actions would be inconsistent with staff obligations,” Haq said, referring to UN rules requiring international civil servants to remain independent and impartial.

The allegations originated in an investigation published by Drop Site News on 4 August. It was based on emails from a hacked archive belonging to Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to the UN between 2011 and 2015.

Drop Site said the archive was obtained by the Handala hacking group and later published by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a non-profit archive for leaked and hacked material.

One email published by Drop Site appeared to show Lichner sending Prosor and Israeli diplomat Ronny Leshno-Yaar a report about a 2015 visit to Washington by Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, then the UN high commissioner for human rights.

“For your eyes only. Do not forward,” Lichner allegedly wrote, describing the attachment as a confidential internal summary of Al-Hussein’s meetings.

The document reportedly contained accounts of meetings with White House officials, senators, congressional staff and advocacy organisations. Israel was then facing a UN inquiry into its conduct during the 2014 Gaza war.

Drop Site also published what it said were emails showing Lichner forwarding Israeli officials an internal UN Operations and Crisis Centre report marked strictly confidential, an unpublished draft letter from then-UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and information about closed discussions concerning Palestine.

The correspondence dates from 2014 and 2015, when Lichner worked for the United Nations Population Fund. Before joining UNFPA, he had worked at Israel’s mission to the UN.

Drop Site said the archive contained no evidence that the alleged conduct continued after 2015 or during Lichner’s subsequent work for UNICEF. It also found no evidence that UNICEF knew about the correspondence when it appointed him to lead its Washington office in January 2025.

Lichner and Prosor did not respond to detailed requests for comment from Drop Site. The United Nations Population Fund had not commented publicly on the allegations by Saturday.

No UN investigation, disciplinary finding or criminal charge against Lichner has been publicly announced. UNICEF has not confirmed whether he remains on administrative leave.