Over a dozen countries suspended donations to the biggest UN aid agency in Gaza after Israel alleged that 12 employees were complicit in Hamas’s 7 October attacks. The cuts undermine the International Court of Justice’s instruction to Israel to allow people to access humanitarian aid and could worsen conditions in Gaza.
Of the 12 people Israel named, two were confirmed dead and one was not a staff member of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The agency sacked nine people pending an investigation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services. UNRWA sends details of its 13,000 staff annually to Israel for vetting, most recently in May 2023. “Thus far, Israel has not provided evidence in writing to the UN to substantiate its allegations,” stated Daniel Forti, senior analyst at International Crisis Group on 8 February 2024.
The countries suspending or reviewing UNRWA donations include the US, Germany, the EU, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Netherlands, UK, Italy, Australia, Finland, New Zealand, Austria, France, Iceland, Romania, Estonia and Japan. In contrast Spain and Portugal increased their funding for the agency. 50% of UNRWA’s budget is at risk and the agency risks running out of money at the end of February. The situation has “far reaching humanitarian and human rights consequences,” stated UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese to Aljazeera News on 2 February 2024.
Israel publicised the allegations against UNRWA staff days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s 26 January 2024 instruction to Israel to allow humanitarian aid to Gaza to avert a possible genocide. The timing of the allegations “can only be interpreted as a vengeful act calculated to rebuff the orders of the International Court,” stated the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on 30 January 2024.
If UNRWA’s funding collapses, the ICJ’s January ruling may not help people in Gaza access aid. “The suspension of funds to UNRWA equals to potentially condemning millions of Palestinian refugees to die of hunger and disease,” said Yosra Frawes at the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). “This is complicity manifest to the ongoing genocide, and a totally baffling contravening of the ICJ’s decision.”
UNRWA’s humanitarian aid could cease in the same week that the ICJ ordered Israel to report back on its compliance with the ruling to allow access to life saving support. “If the funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by the end of February,” Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, told Reuters on 1 February 2024. There are no alternative providers to UNRWA as “no other UN humanitarian entity or international NGO operating in the enclave can match its capacity or its reach, particularly now that the hostilities have forced many to suspend operations even as the population’s needs have risen exponentially,” stated UNRWA in a press release on 8 February 2024.
The Israeli government has long criticised UNRWA’s work. “UNRWA must disappear,” Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting in 2018. Stéphane Dujarric, the UN Secretary-General spokesperson said “allegations, accusations, innuendos, direct attacks on UNRWA have been going on for quite some time,” on 5 February 2024. Israel has a “long track record of seeking to place pressure on the international community to defund UNRWA,” according to the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign on 30 January 2024.
UNRWA was formed in 1949 to provide assistance and protection for Palestinian refugees. It provides humanitarian aid, healthcare and education to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
Access to aid is a matter of life and death for Palestinians in Gaza and only time will tell whether UNRWA will be able to continue its work.
