WHO urges to continue funding for UNRWA
Israeli allegations against the UN body a ‘distraction’
Geneva, Switzerland - The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday urged countries to continue funding the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), calling Israeli allegations against the UN body a ‘distraction’ from the ongoing onslaught in Gaza.
“The discussion right now is much of a distraction of what is going on every day, every hour, every minute in Gaza,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told a UN press briefing in Geneva. “It’s a distraction from close to 27,000 deaths as of now, out of which 70 per cent are women and children.”
Lindmeier was referring to recent allegations by Tel Aviv that some of UNRWA’S staff were involved in the cross-border attack on Israel by Palestinian group Hamas on October 7.
Arguing that while these claims should be investigated, he said they currently serve as a ‘distraction’ from measures preventing an entire nation’s access to food, water, shelter and electricity.
They also distract from the ‘continuous shelling’ of Palestinians in Gaza, even in designated safe areas, as well as from attacks on ‘shelters, schools, hospitals’, he added.
“It’s a distraction. And as important as this discussion (on allegations) is, let’s not forget what the real issues are on the ground,” he urged.
At least 12 countries - Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Finland, Australia, UK, Netherlands, US, France, Austria, and Japan - have suspended funding for UNRWA, which was estab
lished in 1949 to help Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.
UNRWA said it terminated contracts with several employees following the Israeli allegations.
‘Denials and delays’
Lindmeier stressed that three missions were planned to deliver supplies to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis city in southern Gaza.
However, he said, only medicines went ahead as fuel is denied by Israel and food for in
ternally displaced people patients and health workers delayed first and eventually could not go ahead.
“Denials and delays are part of a pattern, which impede humanitarian supplies from reaching hospitals and could make them non-functional,” he said.
The spokesperson noted that another attempt was made to get food to Nasser hospital today but due to delays around 500 metres (0.3 miles) from the checkpoint, the crowds self-distributed the food and it could once again not reach Nasser.
Amnesty’s appeal
Meanwhile, Amnesty International has urged donor countries to reverse their decision to suspend funding for the UNRWA, describing it ‘inhumane’ and a ‘devastating blow’ to more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The London-based rights group in a statement issued late on Monday emphasised a dozen donor countries that have suspended funding to UNRWA, urging them to reverse their decisions and refrain from cutting off funding to the UN agency that provides humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees.
‘It is deeply shocking - indeed inhumane - that several governments have taken decisions that will cause further suffering to two million Palestinians, who are already facing the risk of genocide and an engineered famine just days after the International Court of Justice ruling concluded that the survival of Palestinians in Gaza is at risk,” said Agnes Callamard, the rights group’s secretary-general.
She stressed that it is ‘particularly appalling’ that such action has been taken over allegations involving only 12 employees out of UNRWA’S total staff of 30,000.
Israel’s allegations of some UNRWA staffers’ involvement in the October 7 attacks are ‘serious and must be independently investigated’, Callamard said, noting that the alleged actions of a few individuals ‘must not be used as a pretext’ for cutting off lifesaving assistance, which could amount to collective punishment.
“It is disgraceful that instead of heeding the ICJ’S ruling, and the court’s finding that the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is at serious risk of deteriorating further, key states, including the United States, Canada, the UK, Germany, Australia, and France have cut off funding to the main provider of aid for civilians in Gaza,” she said.
Denials and delays are part of a pattern, which impede humanitarian supplies from reaching hospitals and could make them non-functional CHRISTIAN LINDMEIER