Head of Palestinian Aid Organization warns that ‘breaking point’ has been reached
The main United Nations aid agency serving Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and elsewhere in the region has “reached a breaking point,” its leader warned, as donors withdrew funding from the organization and Israel imposed further restrictions on its operations and calls for their closure.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main lifeline for Gaza’s besieged population of 2.2 million during the war between Israel and Hamas, has lost $450 million in donor funds, including from the United States , since Israeli allegations that 12 of the agency’s employees were involved in the October 7 Hamas-led attack.
In the absence of new funding, UNRWA, the largest aid agency on the ground in Gaza, says its reserves will run out by March, even as aid groups warn Gaza is on the brink of famine.
“I fear that we are on the brink of a monumental disaster with serious consequences for regional peace, security and human rights,” Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of UNRWA, wrote in a letter to the President of the General Assembly on Thursday of the UN.
Fewer aid trucks entered Gaza this week than earlier this year, when between 100 and 200 aid trucks arrived on most days; both border crossings used for aid have been regularly closed, sometimes because Israeli protesters have blocked a border crossing. A total of 69 trucks arrived on Tuesday and Wednesday, the agency said. It added that it is targeting 500 per day to meet Gaza’s needs.
The International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to take immediate steps to facilitate the aid that Gaza so desperately needs, which UNRWA would normally play a central role in distributing. But Israeli officials have argued that its employees’ alleged ties to Hamas fundamentally endanger the organization.
Israel has claimed that at least 10 percent of the agency’s staff have ties to Palestinian armed groups in Gaza. UNRWA leaders say the agency tries to ensure that its 13,000 employees in Gaza maintain standards of neutrality, and that it shares the names of its staff with Israeli authorities, but they say it is not possible to guarantee personal loyalty of all its employees.
A proposal for Gaza’s post-war future, shared by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel with members of his cabinet on Thursday evening, called for the closure of UNRWA in Gaza and its replacement “with responsible international aid organizations.”
Israeli officials have taken a series of actions against UNRWA since the day the allegations became public, the same day the International Court of Justice issued its relief order. Israeli officials have said they would revoke tax exemptions and other privileges as a U.N. agency, limit visas for staff and suspend shipments of goods to and from Israel.
Mr Lazzarini argued that Israel wanted to close UNRWA to make it impossible to create a Palestinian state alongside Israel. He quoted A card that Mr. Netanyahu presented to the UN General Assembly in September, showing the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank within Israel’s borders.
Israel’s calls to close UNRWA are “not about the neutrality of the organization,” Mr. Lazzarini wrote in his letter to the president of the UN General Assembly. “UNRWA’s mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees in the same area is an obstacle to achieving that map.”
Mr Netanyahu has previously rejected the concept of an independent Palestinian state, although his plan released on Friday did not explicitly rule it out. The plan does not say whether Israeli settlers will be allowed to return to Gaza, from which they withdrew in 2005.
As part of Israel’s crackdown on UNRWA, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, has issued a directive not to transfer Gaza food aid stuck in the Israeli coastal city of Ashdod to the organization. U.N. officials will instead channel the aid — 1,050 containers containing mostly flour — through the World Food Program, Jamie McGoldrick, a top U.N. humanitarian official in Jerusalem, told reporters on Thursday.
Israeli authorities did not immediately confirm that the flour had been cleared to enter Gaza. A spokeswoman for Israel’s customs office said UN shipments not intended for UNRWA were being released “as normal”, but declined to comment on specific cargo.
Mr. Smotrich’s office called the move a positive step toward further hampering UNRWA’s ability to operate in Gaza. “If that is true, then that is excellent,” said Eytan Fuld, spokesman for Mr. Smotrich. “That was the goal.”