Washington D.C. – On Jan. 18, Israel delivered a preliminary report to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) alleging, with lack of evidence, that 12 of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. Israel makes these claims as the country faces a genocide case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In response to the allegations, UNRWA immediately launched an internal investigation and terminated the staff involved in the claims by Israel, prompting several countries to suspend their funding to UNRWA. These funding suspensions have major implications for aid in Gaza amidst the humanitarian crisis, as UNRWA provides critical humanitarian, healthcare, and education services to millions of Palestinian refugees in the region, including over 2 million people in Gaza.
These immediate consequences of funding pauses that stem from unsupported claims set a dangerous precedent for the stability of aid services in humanitarian crisis zones. Furthermore, the long-standing and institutionalized nature of UNRWA makes it the most effective and accessible vehicle for humanitarian assistance in Gaza. Top donors cannot simply defund UNRWA and begin giving the same amount of money to other NGOs or humanitarian organizations and expect the needs of the Gazan population to be met. “No other UN humanitarian entity or international NGO operating in the enclave can match its capacity or its reach, particularly now that the hostilities have forced many to suspend operations even as the population’s needs have risen exponentially,” as stated by the International Crisis Group.
UNRWA, established by the UN General Assembly in 1949, provides humanitarian assistance, health, and education services to around 5.6 million Palestinian refugees registered with the agency within Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Israel has called for UNRWA to be dismantled for years, and has disseminated unsubstantiated and damaging claims against the organization on multiple occasions. Analysts argue that Israel has long wished for UNRWA to stop its work in Gaza and the surrounding region. The attack on UNRWA follows a similar pattern of Israeli-linked groups launching baseless “lawfare” attacks against Palestinian civil society organizations, a trend C&SN has monitored since 2014 which has increased in frequency since Oct. 7.
Due to these recent allegations made by Israel, several top donors to UNRWA, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and others, have suspended funding to the agency, which relies almost entirely on ad hoc funding through voluntary contributions. Several other prominent funding countries have expressed concern but continued funding. Spain and Portugal recently agreed to increase their funding for the agency, although it is not nearly enough to keep the agency running during a crisis as dire as the situation in Gaza.
Several humanitarian organizations have expressed outrage that donors have suspended funding to Gaza. The Norwegian Refugee Council called it a “reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population,” and issued a joint statement signed by 25 other international organizations, including Oxfam, Refugees International, Save the Children, and Norwegian People’s Aid. On Feb. 14, a coalition of over 50 national organizations from the U.S., including the Charity & Security Network (C&SN), sent a letter to President Biden urging the administration to restore funding to UNRWA.
The rush to suspend funds by several major donors without evidence or a conclusive investigation during a time when there is an “unprecedented and unparalleled civilian death toll” amounts to what many are labeling “collective punishment” to innocent civilians in Gaza. UNRWA has noted that up to 1.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) are either residing in 154 UNRWA shelters or near those shelters. Without a resumption in funding, UNRWA may have to shut down its operations in Gaza. The timing could not be worse, on Feb. 12, Israel launched “one of the deadliest Israeli bombing campaigns in recent months,” killing many IDPs who had sought shelter in Rafah, which hosts over 1.4 million refugees.
Top donors must continue to fund UNRWA. To do otherwise would be catastrophic for the region and a “death sentence” for Palestinians in Gaza and the surrounding region. According to a statement by UNRWA’s Commissioner General, Philippe Lazzarinia, “[i]t would be immensely irresponsible to sanction an Agency and an entire community it serves because of allegations of criminal acts against some individuals, especially at a time of war, displacement and political crises in the region.”
C&SN supports the continuation of funding to UNRWA and urges donors to continue funding the agency in this crucial time when life-saving assistance is needed now more than ever.