UNRWA faces shutdown without new funding
DOHA – The United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) said on Thursday that it will most likely be forced to shut down its operations in the Middle East, including in Gaza, by the end of the month if funding does not resume.
A string of countries including the United States, Germany, and Britain have paused their funding to the aid agency in the wake of allegations that some UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas’ October 7 attacks in southern Israel.
“The agency remains the largest aid organization in one of the most severe and complex humanitarian crises in the world,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.
“If the funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by the end of February not only in Gaza but also across the region.”
The Israeli offensive launched in the wake of the attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage, has displaced most of Gaza’s population, left many homes and civilian infrastructure in ruins, and caused acute shortages of food, water, and medicine.
Aid groups and other UN agencies have urged donors to keep supporting UNRWA, with the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) warning on Wednesday that defunding would have “catastrophic consequences” for the people of Gaza.
Israeli authorities have long called for the agency to be dismantled, arguing that its mission is obsolete and fosters anti-Israeli sentiment, something UNRWA has vigorously denied.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his call to terminate UNRWA’s mandate and to replace it with other UN or non-UN aid agencies.
UNRWA, formally the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, was established in 1949 by the UN General Assembly after the war surrounding the founding of Israel as a Jewish state when 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes.
It employs 30,000 Palestinians to serve the civic and humanitarian needs of 5.9 million descendants of those refugees – in the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank, and vast camps in neighboring Arab countries.
The Knesset’s Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs and Public Diplomacy, headed by National Unity MK Ze’ev Elkin, held a meeting on Thursday regarding UNRWA, a meeting that included the relevant government figures and was classified.
Elkin said that the committee had seen, again and again, statistics that “prove that UNRWA has effectively become part of the civilian administrative wing of Hamas” and that its existence “only immortalizes the Palestinian’s refugee crisis, the incitement, and hate against Israel, and is being used as a tool by Hamas.”
He urged the government to not sit on the opportunity now to halt UNRWA activities. (Reuters)