Twenty international aid groups expressed support Monday for the United Nations’ Palestinian relief agency, as several major donors suspended support following the revelation that a dozen staffers may have been involved in the October 7 terror attack inside Israel.
“The suspension of funding by donor states will impact life-saving assistance for over 2 million civilians, over half of whom are children, who rely on UNRWA aid in Gaza,” the aid groups said, using the acronym for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.
“The population faces starvation, looming famine and an outbreak of disease under Israel’s continued indiscriminate bombardment and deliberate deprivation of aid in Gaza,” they added.
Save the Children, ActionAid, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam and American Friends Service Committee are among the groups that signed the statement.
Several countries, including UNRWA’s top donor, the United States, said they are suspending financial support while an investigation is carried out.
“These decisions threaten our ongoing humanitarian work across the region including and especially in the Gaza Strip,” UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement. “It is shocking to see a suspension of funds to the agency in reaction to allegations against a small group of staff, especially given the immediate action that UNRWA took by terminating their contracts and asking for a transparent independent investigation.”
UNRWA employs 13,000 mainly Palestinian staff in just the Gaza Strip. They have continued to work since October 7 to provide some relief to nearly 2 million displaced Palestinians. More than 150 UNRWA staff have been killed in the fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Of the dozen staffers implicated by Israel in the deadly attacks, the U.N. immediately fired nine of them, one was confirmed dead and officials are clarifying the identity of two others. The U.N. immediately opened an internal investigation.
Funding freeze
On Monday, Austria was the latest donor to suspend additional funding.
The European Union, which is the agency’s third largest donor providing more than $114 million in 2022, said it does not foresee any new funding to UNRWA before the end of February, and it wants to conduct an audit of the aid agency.
“It expects UNRWA to agree to carrying out an audit of the Agency to be conducted by EU appointed independent external experts, reviewing, thereby the pillar assessment, focusing specifically on the control systems needed to prevent the possible involvement of its staff in terrorist activities,” the EU said in a statement.
The EU said it will continue to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank through partner organizations.
At least 10 other countries, which together account for about 60% of UNRWA’s funding, have suspended support. They include the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, warned that countries that cut aid, following provisional measures imposed Friday by the International Court of Justice, could be violating their obligations under the Genocide Convention.
Meanwhile, Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said his government has no plans to suspend assistance, which totaled more than $8.5 million in 2022. Spain also said it would continue its financial assistance, which topped $13.5 million in 2022.
Major contributor Norway, which provided more than $34 million in 2022, also said it would continue.
“UNRWA is a lifeline for millions of people in deep distress in Gaza as well as in the wider region,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said on X.
Aid in immediate jeopardy
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that without adequate funding for UNRWA, aid for more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza would be scaled back as soon as February.
"The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences," Guterres said in a statement, adding that they could face criminal prosecution. But he urged donors not to punish the thousands of aid workers and people they serve.
Guterres’ spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said Monday that the U.N. chief has been working the phones, speaking to donors and regional leaders. He spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Monday and has a call scheduled with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. He met Monday morning with Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He also conferred with the head of the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services, which is heading up an internal probe into the allegations.
Dujarric said Guterres also plans to meet with major donors on Tuesday.
Israel rebuked Guterres for calling for the resumption in aid to UNRWA. Gilad Erdan, the Jewish state’s ambassador to the U.N., said that Guterres “has proven once again that the security of the citizens of Israel is not really important for him.”
“After years in which he ignored the evidence presented to him personally about UNRWA's support and involvement in incitement and terrorism, and before he conducted a comprehensive investigation to locate all Hamas terrorists in UNRWA, he called to fund an organization that is deeply contaminated with terrorism,” Erdan said.
Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and others. Israel says the group’s October 7 attack killed 1,200 people.
“Every country that continues to fund UNRWA before a comprehensive investigation of the organization should know that its money might be used for terrorism, and the aid that will be transferred to UNRWA may reach the Hamas terrorists instead of the people of Gaza,” Erdan concluded.
Israel has criticized UNRWA for years, alleging that the schools the agency operates have been used by Hamas for terrorist activities and that they promote an anti-Israel curriculum. Since the October 7 attacks, Israeli officials have accused some staffers of celebrating the attacks on social media.
UNRWA has provided basic services, including medical care and education, for Palestinian families who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding the country's creation. They now live in built-up refugee camps in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Hostage talks
The dispute over UNRWA funding came as two senior U.S. officials said negotiators were reported to be closing in on a cease-fire agreement that would halt the Israel-Hamas fighting for two months and lead to the release of the remaining 100 or so hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The emerging terms of the deal would call for the release of the remaining women, elderly and wounded hostages in a first 30-day phase, but details on the release of men were not clear. The pending deal also calls for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director Bill Burns met Sunday in Paris with David Barnea, head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency; Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani; and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel to discuss the possible cease-fire.
More than 100 hostages were released in late November during a weeklong cease-fire in exchange for 240 Palestinians jailed by Israel. Since then, fighting has been nonstop, and no more hostages have been freed.
Israel’s military said Monday it carried out airstrikes in the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza, while ground operations killed militants in central and northern Gaza.
The U.N. office for humanitarian affairs said Monday that the heavy fighting in Khan Younis was reported near Nasser and Al Amal hospitals, with people reportedly fleeing to the overcrowded town of Rafah in unsafe conditions. The U.N. says hospitals in Khan Younis are at risk of closure due to the hostilities and Israeli evacuation orders in surrounding areas.
The Israeli military also said “a terrorist carried out a ramming attack” next to one of their military bases in northern Israel. The suspect was shot by Israeli troops after getting out of a vehicle and trying to attack Israel forces with an ax.
The Israeli counteroffensive after the October 7 Hamas attack has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, while also destroying vast swaths of Gaza and displacing nearly 85% of the territory's people.
VOA U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
