France to provide UNRWA funding ensuring right conditions are met
France will provide over 30 million euros ($32.41 million) to United Nations Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA this year to support its operations amid the devastating war in Gaza, the foreign ministry said.
“We will make our contributions while ensuring that the conditions are met for UNRWA to fulfill its missions in a spirit devoid of incitement to hatred and violence,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine told journalists.
He did not say when the next payment to the agency would be made. According to the usual quarterly schedule, the next tranche is due in April.
Earlier, Dozens of people protested outside the Beirut office of the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency on Wednesday after it put a staff member on administrative leave over possible violations of staff conduct regulations.
School teacher Fathi al-Sharif was put on leave for three months without pay as the UN agency investigated alleged activities “that are in violation of the Agency’s regulatory framework governing staff conduct,” the agency told Reuters in a statement.
UNRWA said it could not discuss further details. It did not say whether he was accused of membership of an armed group.
Sharif spoke at the protest on Wednesday, where a crowd had gathered to support him. Several people told Reuters that he had been accused of links to Palestinian group Hamas, which carried out a deadly attack in Israel in October.
“The job can go, and we will stay!” he told those gathered.
UNRWA, which provides essential services including education and health to Palestinian refugees across the region, has been in crisis.
Israel informed the UN that it will no longer approve UNRWA food convoys to the north of Gaza, where famine is possible by May, according to a UN-backed report published last week. An Israeli government spokesman said on Monday Israel would stop working with UNRWA altogether in Gaza.
Earlier this year, Israel accused 12 UNRWA employees in the Gaza Strip of taking part in the Hamas-led attack on Israeli soil on Oct. 7 that left 1,200 people dead, with more than 130 still held hostage by the group.
Israel launched a land, sea and air offensive in response that the Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza say has left more than 32,000 Palestinians dead.
Israel’s allegations prompted a suspension of funding by more than a dozen donors, many of whom have resumed funding.
They also sparked an investigation by a UN oversight body and a separate review process by UNRWA, which its Lebanon representative Dorothee Klaus told Reuters would examine safeguards protecting its neutrality and independence.
She said she expected her branch of the agency would be consulted in a possible review of whether staff in Lebanon were affiliated to armed groups.
After the US decided not to use powers, the resolution passed 14-0.
Upset over the US abstaina, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled the visit in protest.
its veto