The United Nations has urged the countries that have paused funding for the world body’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, to reverse their decision, warning that aid for some two million people in the besieged Gaza Strip is at stake.
“…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.
Meanwhile, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general, urged those countries to “reconsider their decisions before UNRWA is forced to suspend its humanitarian response.”
At least nine countries, including the United States and some of its allies, have paused their funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, citing allegations by the Israeli regime that some of its employees were involved in the Palestinian resistance movements’ anti-regime operation on October 7, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm.
The decision came amid the genocidal war that the Israeli regime has been waging against Gaza since that operation was staged. The regime’s war of aggression has so far killed more than 26,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, with over 65,000 others injured.
Since the onset of the war, most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have become more reliant on the aid that UNRWA provides, including about one million who have been displaced by the Israeli bombardments.
Norwegian Refugee Council: Do not starve children
“Donors, do not starve children,” said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, while Michael Fakhri, a UN-appointed expert on the right to food, warned that the funding cuts meant that famine was now “inevitable” in Gaza.
“We used to say Israel was launching a war of famine against us in parallel to its war of destruction. Now those countries who suspended the aid to UNRWA declared themselves partners in this war, and collective punishment,” Yamen Hamad, who lives at an UNRWA-run school in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza Strip, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, for his part, said he was “surprised” by the move to pause UNRWA funding, adding that it would lead to more suffering for Palestinians.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry has also urged countries that have paused funding for UNRWA to reconsider their move.
On Sunday, Iran condemned Israel’s allegations against UNRWA’s employees as yet another “malicious” move and part of the regime’s “inhumane” treatment of Palestinians.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani said Israel has leveled the allegations to justify its restrictions on humanitarian organizations active in the besieged Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, said the governments cutting funds to UNRWA were most likely violating their obligations under the UN Genocide Convention.
Albanese also highlighted the timing of the defunding, which came a day after the International Court of Justice’s conclusion that Israel was plausibly committing genocide in Gaza.
