“Whereas we’re very actively addressing these considerations, the The humanitarian work should proceed“, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric informed reporters on the Midday Briefing at headquarters in New York on Tuesday.
“Gaza civilians who’re struggling want the continued assist of everybody,” he mentioned. “The essential humanitarian work that the UN doesn’t solely in Gaza, within the area, have to be supported. Individuals’s lives rely upon it.”
A number of main donors have halted funding pending investigations into Israel’s allegations late final week that 12 of UNRWA’s 30,000 employees colluded with Hamas within the October 7 assaults that killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostage. UNRWA launched an unbiased investigation into the company’s humanitarian operations on January 17.
Later at present, the UN Secretary-Common will meet 35 member states and the European Union to debate UNRWA, temporary them on the allegations and hearken to their considerations, he mentioned.
‘The UN doesn’t cooperate with Hamas’
Mr Dujarric harassed that UNRWA shares its employees lists for Gaza, the West Financial institution, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria with Israel and the Palestinian Authority yearly, and mentioned no “considerations” had been raised by both.
“UNRWA doesn’t cooperate with Hamas,” he mentioned. “We’ve operational contact with de facto authorities as in different international locations.”
The UN has not but obtained direct written studies from Israel on the allegations, he mentioned. In the meantime, a radical investigation is underway and the UN has fired a number of company employees concerned within the allegations. Media studies point out that two of the suspects are useless.
“Our aim is a humanitarian ceasefire, elevated quantity and high quality of incoming assist, and a political resolution that might return us to the two-state resolution.“mentioned the UN spokesperson.
What’s at stake?
With greater than 26,000 useless and because the warfare ends in rising struggling for civilians in Gaza, who’re trapped between the combatants, considerations on the bottom are rising.
Mr Dujarric mentioned the UN Humanitarian Coordination Company, OCHA, has reported that Israel has issued a brand new evacuation order in western Gaza Metropolis, the place 300,000 civilians lived earlier than the beginning of the disaster, and has been in place since mid-January of elevated hostilities and violence. extreme delays for assist convoys.
As for UNRWA, charged with serving greater than 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, its work will likely be affected, he mentioned.
“The monetary state of affairs will likely be very precarious after February,” Dujarric informed reporters on Tuesday.
UNRWA operates totally on a donation foundation, with the latest information displaying $1.1 billion in pledges for its packages for Palestinian refugees.
Threatening cuts
Main donors, together with the US, Canada and Germany, introduced they might droop funding to UNRWA in the course of the investigations.
In response to 2022 UNRWA information, the US is the biggest donor, contributing practically $344 million, or a couple of third of the company’s annual working finances.
Following media studies of Washington’s announcement to now withhold about $1 million and droop funding till the investigation is accomplished, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield spoke to reporters exterior the Safety Council Chamber on Tuesday.
She welcomed the UN’s determination to open an investigation and mentioned the US authorities has contacted Israel for extra info.
‘There have to be accountability’: US
“There have to be accountability for everybody who took half within the October 7 assaults, however we additionally know that UNRWA performs a vital position in offering life-saving help to Palestinians,” she mentioned.
“We have to see basic adjustments earlier than we will resume offering funding,” she continued, including that she’s going to elevate her delegation’s considerations throughout a gathering with the UN Secretary Common on Tuesday afternoon.
“We should not permit this info to undermine the efforts UNRWA is making to supply life-saving help,” she mentioned, noting that the UN company has “actually saved 1000’s of lives.”
Penalties of ‘life or loss of life’
Help businesses have warned that there’s “merely not sufficient meals”, with some elevating alarms about looming famine, illness and displacement within the enclave.
With out funding, UNRWA can not fulfill its mission of offering assist, the group’s former head of authorized affairs, Johan Sufi, mentioned UN information on Monday.
“By shedding their funding, the company primarily loses all of the assets to function,” mentioned Mr Sufi, who led UNRWA’s authorized affairs group from 2020 to 2022. “This implies speedy penalties for the salaries of its employees. [and] on its capacity to supply humanitarian help to the inhabitants.”
The extra critical, speedy threat is for the inhabitants: no entry to water, meals, medical assist, no humanitarian assist in anyway, as UNRWA is the principle assist supplier, he warned.
Contemplating that the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice considers that there’s a critical threat of genocide within the Gaza Strip, he mentioned that one of many causes is the deterioration of situations that might imply additional bodily destruction of a part of the inhabitants of Gaza .
Referring to the brand new cuts, he mentioned:this determination can have speedy penalties.”
“We are actually speaking a couple of matter of life and loss of life,” he mentioned.