The Crisis of UNRWA: Accusations, Aid Cuts, and the Future of Palestinian Refugees

2024-01-30 07:59:22

The United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the main aid entity in Gaza, is in the eye of the storm. Israel has accused some of its employees of being involved in the attacks carried out by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7 in Israeli territory. In retaliation, several countries, including the United States, have announced the cut of their aid, which is key to feeding millions of civilians.

Although Israel has not published details of its complaint, UNRWA has already announced the dismissal of at least 12 of its employees following the accusations.

LOOK: The multimillion-dollar cost to Israel of the war in the Gaza Strip

On Friday, an Israeli official told CNN that Israel shared information regarding 12 UNRWA employees allegedly involved in the October 7 attacks. This information was delivered to both that UN agency and the United States.

Displaced Palestinians receive food aid from UNRWA in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on January 28, 2024. (AFP photo).

This Sunday, the American newspaper The New York Times gave details of the complaint.

According to the NYT, UNRWA employees kidnapped Israelis, transported ammunition and the body of a dead Israeli soldier, and participated in the deadly assault on a kibbutz during the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack.

The newspaper maintained that it had access to the report delivered to the United States in which it states that a UNRWA school counselor from Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, is “accused of working with his son to kidnap a woman from Israel.” .

“A social worker from Nuseirat, in central Gaza, is accused of helping carry the body of a dead Israeli soldier to Gaza, as well as distributing ammunition and coordinating vehicles on the day of the attack,” the report also says. by the NYT.

Additionally, a third UNRWA employee was “described as participating in the kibbutz massacre in which 97 people were killed.”

According to the NYT, Israel’s report reveals the names, details and positions at UNRWA of 12 workers allegedly involved, and maintains that 10 of the workers in question are members of Hamas, while one belongs to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The report also maintains that seven of the accused were teachers in UNRWA schools, and two worked in schools in different positions. The other three were described as a clerk, a social worker and a warehouse manager.

How did Israel discover the alleged involvement of UNRWA workers? According to the report, Israeli intelligence traced the phones of six of the defendants, and had access to the phone calls of other employees who allegedly discussed their involvement in the attack. They also accessed text messages received by three others ordering them to report to assembly points ahead of Hamas’s assault on Israel, including one ordering them to bring RPG grenade launchers that were stored in his house.

According to the UN,

At least 152 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7.

In a statement released Saturday, Hamas criticized the decision to end employees’ contracts and accused Israel of trying to undermine UNRWA and other organizations providing humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz speaks to the media while holding photographs of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. (Photo by JOHN TU / AFP).

What is going to happen to UNRWA?

Israel said Saturday it will seek to end the UN agency’s presence in Gaza. Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said the government wants to “make sure that UNRWA is not part” of the solution in the Palestinian territory following the war.

Katz called on donors to favor agencies “that are sincerely dedicated to peace and development” and called on UNRWA director Philippe Lazzarini to leave his post.

“Mr. Lazzarini, please resign,” Katz said Saturday night on the social network X.

For his part, Lazzarini considered on Saturday “shocking to see that funds for the agency are suspended in reaction to the accusations once morest a small group of its staff,” taking into account that measures have already been adopted and that “the survival of the agency depends on that aid.” two million people” in the Gaza Strip.

On Monday, the agency called on donor countries “not to turn their backs on Gaza” and “continue humanitarian aid.”

”The majority of Gazans depend on UNRWA to survive,” the organization said in a statement in which it assured that 13,000 of its aid workers “work tirelessly in unimaginable conditions” to deliver aid to the region.

Displaced Palestinians receive food aid from UNRWA in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on January 28, 2024. (AFP photo).

Which countries have cut aid to UNRWA?

Following Israel’s complaint, more than a dozen countries announced the suspension of their aid to UNRWA.

On Friday, the United States suspended funding to the UN agency. The State Department said it was “extremely concerned” regarding the suspicions surrounding UNRWA and has “temporarily suspended additional funding (…) while it examines these allegations and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them.”

Other countries that have suspended the delivery of funds are the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, Austria, Italy, Finland, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Japan.

For its part, Switzerland has said that it conditions its aid to UNRWA on the final results of the investigation into its employees.

While Spain has stressed that it will not cut its contributions. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait have said the same.

Major contributors to UNRWA. (AFP).

What is the importance of UNRWA for the Palestinians?

The United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East has played a key role for millions of Palestinians since its creation in 1949 and is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from governments.

In 2022, UN regular budget funds and contributions from other UN entities amounted to $44.6 million.

The top five donors are the United States, Germany, the European Union, Sweden and Norway. Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Switzerland also contribute.

Its function is to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees registered in its area of ​​operations, “pending a just and lasting solution to their situation.”

More than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their lands between April and August 1948 following the creation of Israel, according to the UN. These people and their descendants have refugee status. UNRWA became the sole international guarantor of their status.

The agency operates not only in the Palestinian territories, but also in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

The agency runs regarding 60 refugee camps, of which 19 are in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian refugees. (AFP).

More than 540,000 children study in UNRWA schools.

There are 2.4 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. Of them, 1.7 million have refugee status. Until the start of the war on October 7, 63% of its inhabitants faced food insecurity and depended on international aid, and more than 80% lived in poverty, according to the UN.

Of the 30,000 people employed by UNRWA, 13,000 work in the Gaza Strip, according to the entity’s website.

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