UNRWA funding cuts threaten Palestinian lives across the region, say NGOs

Some 21 international aid agencies have come together to express how “deeply concerned and outraged” they are that some of the largest donors have united to suspend funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main aid provider for millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the region.

Save the Children, ActionAid, Oxfam, the Danish Refugee Council were among those who warned that the decision to cease funding of the UN  aid agency “comes amid a rapidly worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.”

“The suspension of funding by donor states will impact life-saving assistance for over two million civilians, over half of whom are children, who rely on UNRWA aid in Gaza. 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 said in a joint letter.

“We welcome UNRWA’s swift investigation into the alleged involvement of a small number of UN staff members in the October 7th  attacks,” they continued, adding: “We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job.”

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On Friday, as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered “immediate and effective action to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza”, the UN announced that it has severed ties with a number of staff which Israel had said were involved in the 7 October infiltration into Israel by Palestinian resistance fighters. UNRWA said a probe had been launched into the former employees’ activities.

Upon news of this, the US, Canada, UK and other Western countries immediately announced that they would not be contributing to the humanitarian organisation.

152 UNRWA staff have already been killed and 145 UNRWA facilities damaged by Israel’s genocidal bombing campaign in Gaza. UNRWA is the largest humanitarian agency in Gaza and their delivery of humanitarian assistance cannot be replaced by other agencies working in Gaza. “If the funding suspensions are not reversed we may see a complete collapse of the already restricted humanitarian response in Gaza,” the 21 rights groups warned.

“The countries suspending funds risk further depriving Palestinians in the region of essential food, water, medical assistance and supplies, education and protection.”

Israel has repeatedly equated UNRWA staff with Hamas members in efforts to discredit them, providing no proof of the claims, while lobbying hard to have UNRWA closed as it is the only UN agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees. If the agency no longer exists, argues Israel, then the refugee issue must no longer exist, and the legitimate right for Palestinian refugees to return to their land will be unnecessary. Israel has denied that right of return since the late 1940s, even though its own membership of the UN was made conditional upon Palestinian refugees being allowed to return to their homes and land.

READ: UNRWA funding suspension aims to liquidate agency, says Arab League