Last week, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency sent about 80 trucks loaded with aid to Gaza, but that was in cooperation with the World Food Programme, one of the organizations that Israel proposed to replace. UNRWA spokeswoman Tamara Al-Rifai said that this represents about half of the quantity that UNRWA delivered to the Strip last month.
UNRWA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini said on February 9 that enough flour, rice, chickpeas and cooking oil from Turkey to last a month had been stuck for weeks in the Israeli port of Ashdod, where authorities had been instructed not to release them. He said she was “affected” because an Israeli bank froze the agency's account.
Relief organizations say that Gaza is approaching famine because its food supplies are severely limited and its hospital system has been damaged by the three-month-long war. The majority of its 2.2 million people do not have enough food or water.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday that an additional 30 UNRWA employees took part in the Hamas attack, which Israeli authorities say killed about 1,200 people in communities near Gaza and took more than 253 more hostage. This is in addition to the 12 employees who were accused by Israel last month.
“UNRWA has lost its legitimacy and can no longer function as a United Nations body,” Gallant told reporters on Friday. “I have instructed the defense establishment to begin transferring responsibilities for aid delivery to additional organizations.”
Gallant said that 12 percent of UNRWA's 13,000 employees belong to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
UNRWA denied knowledge of its employees' alleged involvement in the October 7 attack.
“The Israeli government indicated that even with highly professional intelligence services and security forces, the planning of the attack went undetected by them, meaning that all participants, including people allegedly working for UNRWA, were illicitly participating in ways that UNRWA would have done.” also”. “We could not disclose,” spokesman Jonathan Fowler said He said.
These allegations prompted the United States, UNRWA's largest backer, and 15 other governments to suspend funding for the agency pending the results of multiple investigations. The Biden administration says it is exploring other ways to get aid to Gaza.
Israel responded to the October 7 attack by launching a military campaign that authorities say aims to eliminate Hamas. The Ministry of Health there says the fighting has killed more than 28,900 people in Gaza, and forced more than 80 percent of survivors to leave their homes. The agency says that among the dead were at least 258 UNRWA workers.
As the Israeli army expands its campaign, it says it has revealed new details about UNRWA's cooperation with Hamas.
The army released a video this month of what it said was a Hamas underground server complex 65 feet below UNRWA headquarters in Gaza. On Tuesday, the army released a video of what happened This was what was said about the hideout of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Khan Yunis, with UNRWA parcels among the hideout.
Lazzarini denied that the group was aware of “all the situations in which UN buildings were blatantly disrespected.” An internal investigation has been ordered.
Israel is acting cautiously. Officials familiar with The strategy says the country's defense establishment is reluctant to close the group immediately, given its role in providing food and shelter to Gazans.
“In the short term, the idea is to find alternative service providers that are not linked to Hamas,” said an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe confidential government discussions. “In the long term, the idea is that UNRWA will not be part of the ‘day after’ in Gaza.”
Another Israeli familiar with the discussions said: “Israel has always believed that UNRWA is allied with Hamas, but what has changed is that the red lines that were crossed have become clear to the international community as well.” “Overseas taxpayers will not want to support that.”
In Washington, the Biden administration continues to support UNRWA's work but believes it is unlikely to find support for more funding anytime soon. With Republicans in Congress strongly opposed and Democrats divided, Few see funding for UNRWA as an issue worthy of burning political capital in an election year. The Senate-approved version of the supplemental bill to fund aid to Ukraine, Israel and other allies included a clause preventing funding for the agency. It received significant bipartisan support.
“As a general principle, we support the work that UNRWA is doing,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters last week. “We support the provision of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people in Gaza. The United States has been the largest funder of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians, and we expect to continue funding humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians.”
But the administration is exploring other ways to fund some of the work UNRWA has done in Gaza and elsewhere, including the possibility of redirecting funds to the World Food Programme.
There is also potential for an alternative budget solution, Miller said. US allies could increase their funding for UNRWA through funds transferred from other programmes, which Washington could then fill.
Ireland pledged 20 million euros on Thursday to help UNRWA is dealing with the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, and said that the agency, as “the backbone of the humanitarian response,… urgently needs support from all UN member states.”
Norway accelerated payment of its scheduled $26 million contribution this month for this year, and officials have talked about increasing the amount.
But Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide warned that regardless of budgetary solutions, the agency's stability depends on a broad base of support.
“It's unfortunate that we don't have the United States as one of the donors, even if we could replace the money, so it doesn't solve the whole problem,” he told the Washington Post.
Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, said on Twitter on Thursday: “There is no alternative to UNRWA’s role in the absence of a real political solution.” “To claim otherwise not only puts the lives of desperate people at risk, but also jeopardizes the chances of a successful transition.”
Al-Rifai, the UNRWA spokeswoman, told the newspaper that the agency has been and will continue to work alongside other relief organizations, but the issue of dismantling “is something that must be decided by the General Assembly, because that is where we get our mandate.”
Since Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel has viewed UNRWA as a means to manage humanitarian issues for Palestinians. The agency addresses the needs of the civilian population – food distribution, shelter, health care, education, and salaries – and promotes stability.
He said: “It was important for the security establishment to have a point of contact other than Hamas, especially during rounds of conflict, so that Israel would not need to work directly with Hamas at the same time it was fighting Hamas.” Michael Kobe, former Deputy Director General and Head of the Palestinian Office in the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs.
When the Trump administration ended US funding for UNRWA in 2018, the Israeli official said, “There was a lot of pushback from the Israeli defense community,” warning [president Donald] Trump is not rocking the boat.”
When the Biden administration resumed funding in 2022, the official said: “Behind closed doors, there was a sigh of relief in Israel, which is very much a status quo state.”
“For Israel, like Hamas, UNRWA was convenient,” said Kobe, now a senior fellow at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. “But it was a huge mistake.”
Birnbaum reported from Washington. Miriam Berger in Jerusalem and Itay Stern in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
