LAST UPDATE | 1 Feb
THE COMMISSIONER-GENERAL of UNRWA has said that due to donor countries suspending funding, the aid agency’s operations will likely shut down by the end of the month.
UNRWA is a vital lifeline for the nearly two million people displaced by Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, where more than 27,000 people have been killed and over 66,000 injured.
UNRWA became the centre of an international controversy last week when it emerged that Israel had provided the aid agency with an intelligence dossier alleging the involvement of 12 of its workers in the attacks against Israel on 7 October last year.
Sinn Féin has this evening called on the Irish government to increase funding to UNRWA in response to the threats of upwards to 70% of its funding.
‘Last lifeline’
Its Foreign Affairs spokesperson Matt Carthy called on the Tánaiste Micheál Martin to make the commitment at a meeting of the Oireachtas Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence on Thursday.
Carthy said UNRWA stands as the “last lifeline” to many Palestinians, particularly in Gaza.
The response by some EU states to the allegations levelled against UNRWA stands in stark contrast to their refusal to support activating human rights clauses in the EU Israel Association agreement as a mechanism to press them to end their brutal, genocidal onslaught.
The Cavan-Monaghan TD added that the Irish government should commit to “providing additional funds” to alleviate the crisis and engage international partners to coordinate a concerted effort to “maintain and enhance” funding to UNRWA.
UNRWA’s Commissioner-General Phillipe Lazzarini announced that the staff members in question had been fired and an investigation would follow.
“Full accountability and transparency are expected out of this process, should the allegations be substantiated,” an UNRWA statement read.
In spite of this, the United States declared the following day that it was suspending financial support for the agency and so far another 15 countries have followed suit.
Ireland has not joined those countries, which include the UK, Germany, Canada and Japan, with the Tánaiste saying he had “full confidence” in Lazzarini’s decision to fire the staff members and launch an investigation.
In a statement today, Lazzarini said: ”If funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by end of February not only in Gaza but also across the region.”
Consequences
If UNRWA does shut down, the consequences for the civilian population in Gaza will be dire; there are about 1.7 million people staying in and around already overcrowded and under resourced UNRWA shelters across the territory.
UNRWA also works in refugee camps in the West Bank and neighbouring countries.
“It’s difficult to imagine that Gazans will survive this crisis without UNRWA,” said Thomas White, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the United States today imposed sanctions on a handful of Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
US president Joe Biden said the level of violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank had reached intolerable levels.
The sanctions marked a rare move by the US against Israelis and came as Biden traveled to Michigan, whose sizable Arab American community has voiced anger over his support for Israel.
Biden issued an executive order laying out the groundwork for US measures in response to attacks and “acts of terrorism” in the West Bank, where settlers have rampaged against Palestinians amid the separate military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
“The situation in the West Bank — in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction — has reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security and stability,” Biden said in the order.
The administration is expected to announce initial sanctions against four people.
The US State Department identified the four settlers and described the accusations against them:
Under the sanctions, any assets they hold in the US will be blocked, with Americans forbidden from financial transactions with them.
The action marks the first financial sanctions against settlers although the Biden administration earlier announced that it would refuse visas for extremists involved in violence.
Elsewhere, the death toll for Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel has today been revised upwards.
The new tally placed the death toll at 1,163, compared with a previous figure of 1,139.
The latest death toll from the attack is now 767 civilians, 20 hostages and 376 members of the security forces. One person also remains missing.
The youngest victim was a newborn baby who died 14 hours after birth, while the oldest was a 94-year-old woman.
-With reporting from Eoghan Dalton and © AFP 2024
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