GENEVA — A slew of UN agencies have united to warn of “catastrophic consequences for the people of Gaza” if major donor countries do not resume funding for the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, the main lifeline for people in the besieged territory.
The United States and more than a dozen other countries have announced plans to suspend contributions to the organization known as UNRWA, after Israel claimed that 12 of its thousands of workers took part in the October 7 attacks in Israel that sparked the war caused in Gaza.
UN officials fired most of the workers and promised an investigation.
The heads of the World Health Organization, the World Food Program, UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration and other agencies and partners called the allegations “heinous.”
“However, we should not prevent an entire organization from fulfilling its mandate to serve people in desperate need,” the joint statement said. “No other entity has the capacity to provide the scale and breadth of assistance that 2.2 million people in Gaza urgently need.”
UN officials have warned that UNRWA will have to halt operations at the end of February if funding is not restored.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appealed to 35 donor countries during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday and also sought new support.
The allegations against UNRWA staffers are among the most damning yet to damage the image of the sprawling world organization and its subsidiaries following scandals ranging from peacekeeping failures to sexual abuse in places like Congo.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations in New York, acknowledged on Tuesday that UNRWA “plays a critical role in providing life-saving assistance to the Palestinians” but said that “we need to see fundamental changes before we move on from immediate can resume financing. ” to the organization.
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s humanitarian aid coordinator, stressed on Wednesday that UNRWA is “the beating heart” of all humanitarian aid operations in Gaza, saying its work to reach more than three-quarters of Gaza residents “must not be compromised brought about by the alleged actions of a few individuals.”
Speaking to the Security Council, Griffiths said: “UNRWA plays an indispensable role in distribution, warehousing, logistics and human resources – 3,000 staff are responding to the current crisis… we would like to see decisions to withhold funds from UNRWA withdrawn . .”
Jan Egeland, former head of the UN humanitarian agency and secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said it was “telling” that UN bodies and non-governmental organizations agreed that defunding UNRWA “means a collapse of humanitarian work among Palestinian women and children in their country.” the hour of greatest need – when they are facing this brutal, indiscriminate bombardment and there is so little capacity for humanitarian aid.”
In an interview, Egeland said that “UNRWA has done everything right” in response to Israel’s accusations about the involvement of UNRWA employees in the “horrendous attack.”
“They fired these people. Based on these mere allegations, they have launched an independent investigation into everything surrounding that potential betrayal of all our ideals by a small group of employees in the organization,” he said.
___
Edith M. Lederer of the United Nations contributed to this report.
___
Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.