PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins has urged countries who have paused funding for a United Nations agency working with Palestinian refugees to “think again” in order to avoid a “catastrophe” in Gaza. 

In a statement this afternoon, the President said nations must provide support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which has been providing aid and shelter to thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza over the last few months. 

He referenced remarks from UN Secretary-General António Guterres today, where he said there was a “completely insufficient” level of humanitarian aid reaching those in need in Gaza. 

More than a dozen countries, including the UK and the US, have paused funding to the agency following allegations made by Israel that 12 of UNWRA’s staff were directly involved in Hamas’ 7 October on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed.

The head of UNRWA, Phillipe Lazzarini, said he immediately fired the employees in question and launched an investigation into the allegations.

“One wonders how the representatives of those countries who have withdrawn funding from UNRWA can look on as young infants struggle to live, infants whose lives could be saved by having such basics as bread and water,” President Higgins said in a statement.

“Some of the most experienced and qualified experts familiar with what is happening in Gaza are saying that famine looms, with young children in particular heavily at risk and needing bread and clean water. Their mothers and close relatives listen to their cries in what must be conditions of unbelievable stress.”

The President referenced his own visits to Gaza in the past, saying that one of the most striking features was the importance of bakeries.

“Today we have seen bakeries wiped out together with most places of shelter, where children struggle for food.

Surely it cannot be possible for people to look on and allow this tragedy to unfold on our screens.

Earlier this month, Tánaiste Micheál Martin pledged a further €20 million in additional funding for UNRWA and accused Israel of a “disinformation campaign” against the agency.

President Higgins said “the lead taken by Ireland” in giving increased and additional aid to UNRWA is “an example of which Irish people can be proud of, not only because our own history, but given the importance international humanitarian action and international humanitarian law has in our world”. 

“As President of Ireland, I would appeal to those countries which have withdrawn aid to think again and to provide the desperately needed support to UNRWA’s 30,000 staff in the region and 13,000 staff in Gaza so we can avoid this catastrophe,” he continued. 

He also repeated calls for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages being held by Hamas. 

Children must not be abandoned to die as the facts of these situations are carried on the television screens of the world.

“The weakening of UNRWA is an undermining of the United Nations itself, a threat to which Secretary-General Guterres has drawn our attention.”

He also pointed to remarks by Guterres about how the Security Council’s failure to agree resolutions to Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the attacks carried out by Hamas on 7 October, along with the war in Ukraine, have “severely – perhaps fatally – undermined its authority”.

Guterres also warned of an expected ground invasion by Israel on Rafah, the last place of relative refuge for over a million people in Gaza.

“Rafah is the core of the humanitarian aid operation, and UNRWA is the backbone of that effort,” he said. 

“An all-out Israeli offensive on the city would not only be terrifying for more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there; it would put the final nail in the coffin of our aid programmes.”