UN urges reversal of funding freeze for Palestinian refugee agency

DOHA/ GENEVA:

UN officials urged countries to reconsider cutting funding to the UN agency for the Palestinians on Sunday, vowing that any staff found involved in Hamas’ attack on Israel would be punished and warning that aid to some two million people in Gaza was at stake.

At least nine countries, including top donors the US and Germany, have cut funding to the UN Refugee Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) after Israel claimed that twelve of its 13,000 staff in Gaza were involved in the October 7 rampage.

“While I understand their concerns – I am horrified by these accusations myself – I strongly appeal to the governments that have suspended their contributions to at least guarantee the continuity of UNRWA’s operations,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday, pledging . to hold “any UN staff member involved in acts of terrorism” accountable.

He said that could include criminal prosecution – a rare move within the world body as most staff enjoy operational immunity, although Guterres has the power to waive it.

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, also urged countries “to reconsider their decisions before UNRWA is forced to suspend its humanitarian response.” A UN investigation into the Israeli allegations is underway.

A truck, with the UNRWA logo at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Egypt, November 27, 2023. PHOTO: REUTERS

More than 26,000 people have been killed in Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, the enclave’s health ministry said. With aid flows such as food and medicine into the territory at a trickle of pre-conflict levels, deaths from preventable diseases and the risk of starvation are rising, aid officials say.

Since the October 7 attacks, which killed 1,200 people in Israel, most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have become more dependent on aid provided by UNRWA, including a million who fled Israeli shelling of shelters on its premises .

Responding to Guterres’ statement, Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan called on all donor states to suspend their support and demand an in-depth investigation into “the involvement of all UNRWA staff in terror.”

He added in a statement that Guterres’ call for continued funding for the agency “proved once again that the security of Israel’s citizens is not really important to him.”

Observers and aid workers said the move by donors would worsen the famine.

“Don’t be hungry guys”

“Donors, don’t starve children for the sins of a few individual aid workers,” said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

A designated UN expert on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, warned that funding cuts meant famine was now “inevitable” in Gaza.

Even before the conflict, UNRWA was struggling to secure funding and warned it was on the brink of collapse. Many of its 13,000 staff are refugees themselves, and at least 150 have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The Palestinians expressed their anger at the funding cuts.

Also read: UN agency in Gaza under pressure over October 7 involvement claims

“We used to say that Israel is waging a war of hunger against us alongside its war of destruction, now those countries that have suspended aid to UNRWA have declared themselves partners in this war and collective punishment,” said Yamen Hamad, who lives in one school run by UNRWA in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip after leaving northern Gaza.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said he was “surprised” by the move to freeze UNRWA funding and said it would lead to more suffering for Palestinians.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry also urged countries that had stopped funding to reconsider their move.

UNRWA’s role has long been criticized by Israel, which it claims has supported Hamas for years – a claim the agency denies.

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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of leading an oppressive campaign against the agency. “The campaign aims to clear the Palestinian refugee issue…” he said in a statement.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zohri said the Israeli accusations against UNRWA were a challenge to the International Court of Justice’s ruling on Friday that ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza.

Israel has yet to publicly provide details on the alleged involvement of UNRWA staff members in the attack on Israel. Guterres said 12 staff members were involved and that nine had been fired, one was dead and the identities of the other two were being clarified.

said Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy Reuters that as far as he knows the information that led the US to cut off its funding has not yet been declassified, but that an Israeli briefing will be devoted to this issue later in the week.

Palestinians fleeing Khan Younis, due to the Israeli ground operation, move towards Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 27, 2024. PHOTO: REUTERS

There was no immediate indication that countries had heeded the UN’s call to restore aid. However, Norway and Ireland said they would continue to fund the agency.

Israel has been highly critical of the United Nations and Guterres in particular since the beginning of the war.

Israel’s then-Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said on November 14 that Guterres was not fit to lead the organization, saying he had not done enough to condemn Hamas and was too close to Iran.

UNRWA was established to help refugees of the war when Israel was established in 1948 and provides education, health and relief services to them in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.