Director of the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Lebanon, Dorothy Klaus, said on Tuesday that the agency expects to issue its initial report on the Israeli accusations against 12 of its employees by early next March, while the Arab League called on the countries that suspended funding for UNRWA to review their decision. .
Klaus reported that the agency believes that the donors who stopped funding UNRWA after Israeli accusations that 12 employees in Gaza out of 30,000 participated in the attack on October 7 last year will review their decisions again.
Klaus said – in a press conference in Beirut – that 19 donors stopped their funding after the Israeli accusations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan and Germany.
UNRWA announced that it was investigating the Israeli allegations as soon as they were issued, and the United Nations formed an independent committee yesterday, Monday, to evaluate UNRWA’s work and the extent of its commitment to neutrality.
“Wrong decision”
In a related development, the Arab League called on all countries that suspended funding for UNRWA to review their decision, saying that this decision is “wrong, dangerous and morally flawed.”
Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said that the decision of the countries to cut funding for UNRWA reflects a lack of understanding of the nature of the role played by UNRWA towards about 5.6 million Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as the Gaza Strip.
He added that the Israeli accusations against 12 employees who were dismissed by UNRWA do not justify the collective punishment of more than half a million Palestinian children receiving education in the agency’s schools, including about 250,000 in 420 schools in the Gaza Strip alone, in addition to 900,000 receiving food aid.
UNRWA warned that its ability to provide humanitarian aid and relief services was on the verge of collapse.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres described UNRWA as the backbone of all forms of humanitarian response in Gaza, calling on all countries to ensure the continuity of UNRWA’s life-saving work.
