International community divided on resumption of UNRWA funding, says UK minister
Reports awaited from an internal UN investigation and Catherine Colonna
Updated 13 March 2024
Arab News
LONDON: The US, UK, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, and Australia will not lift their suspension of funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees pending the evaluation of two forthcoming reports, UK Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell has said.
In contrast, Sweden, Canada, and the European Commission have all decided to resume financial support to the agency.
The awaited reports are from an internal UN investigation and Catherine Colonna, a former French foreign minister, who was in Israel in March to gather evidence from the government over its allegations that at least 12 UNRWA staff had been involved in the Oct. 7 attack.
UNRWA has said some employees released in Gaza from Israeli detention reported having been put under pressure by Israeli authorities into falsely saying the agency had links with Hamas and that staff had taken part in the attacks on Israel.
The document said several Palestinian UNRWA staffers had been detained by the Israeli army, adding that the ill-treatment and abuse they claimed they had experienced included severe physical beatings, waterboarding, and threats of harm to family members.
The report added: “Agency staff members have been subject to threats and coercion by the Israeli authorities while in detention, and pressured to make false statements against the agency, including that the agency has affiliations with Hamas and that UNRWA staff members took part in the Oct. 7 atrocities.”
Colonna is expected to deliver her preliminary findings in late March, followed by a final report a month later. The validity of the evidence presented by Israel is under scrutiny.
Mitchell acknowledged a division within the international community regarding UNRWA funding.
He addressed calls to prohibit arms exports to Israel, saying: “The current judgment of the British government is that Israel has the capacity and intent to comply with international humanitarian law.”
Meanwhile, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has advocated for Israel to permit the entry of 500 trucks into Gaza daily.
Alicia Kearns, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, has called on the UK to encourage Israel to increase aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip, following a proposition by Israeli spokesperson Eylon Levy to enhance aid by 100 trucks daily.
US envoy to meet Israel’s Netanyahu on Thursday: spokesman
Israeli media outlets reported that Amos Hochstein had arrived in Israel on Wednesday evening
Updated 12 min 42 sec ago
AFP
JERUSALEM: US envoy Amos Hochstein, seeking to broker a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war, will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, the premier’s office said.
The announcement by spokesman Omer Dostri came after Israeli media outlets reported that Hochstein had arrived in Israel on Wednesday evening and held talks with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
NEW YORK CITY: The US on Wednesday used the power of veto it holds as one of the five permanent member of the UN Security Council to block a resolution demanding “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza and “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”
The resolution was put forward by the 10 elected, non-permanent members of the council. The US was the only one of the 15 members not to vote in favor of it.
The text of the resolution also called for the “safe and unhindered entry of humanitarian assistance at scale” to Gaza, including besieged areas in the north of the territory, and denounced any attempt to deliberately starve the population there.
More than 44,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel’s war in Gaza began in October last year, and the UN says that in excess of 70 percent of the verified deaths were among women and children. More than 130,000 people have been injured. The UN believes these figures to be an underestimate, given that scores of bodies are thought to be buried under the rubble of destroyed or damaged buildings.
The war has also displaced almost the entire population of the enclave, resulting in a humanitarian catastrophe.
On Monday, the UN’s Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices presented a report to the General Assembly in which it said the methods of warfare employed by Israel in Gaza, including the use of starvation as a weapon, the mass civilian casualties and the life-threatening conditions deliberately inflicted on Palestinians, are consistent with the characteristics of genocide.
After the Security Council failed to adopt the resolution on Wednesday, Majed Bamya, the Palestinian deputy ambassador to the UN, told its members that they were witnessing an attempt “to annihilate a nation” and yet the “very tools designed to respond (to this are) not being used.”
He added: “Maybe for some we have the wrong nationality, the wrong faith, the wrong skin color, but we are humans and we should be treated as such.
“Is there a UN Charter for Israel that is different from the charter you all have? Is there an international law for them? An international law for us? Do they have the right to kill and the only right we have is to die?
“What more can (Israel) do for this council to act under Chapter 7? Or will this council be the last place on earth that cannot recognize a threat to peace when they see it?”
Chapter 7 of the UN Charter relates to action that can be taken by member states in response to threats to peace and acts of aggression.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, told council members: “Today, a shameful attempt to abandon our kidnapped men and women by the UN was prevented. Thanks to the US, we stood firm with our position that there will be no ceasefire without the release of the hostages. We will continue in this struggle until everyone returns home.”
Robert Wood, the deputy US ambassador, said that an unconditional ceasefire would mean acceptance by the Security Council of Hamas remaining in power in Gaza.
“The United States will never accept this,” he added. “Rather than adopting a resolution that emboldens Hamas, let’s instead demand Hamas implement Resolution 2735 without further condition or delay.
“Let’s continue to ensure Israel facilitates additional humanitarian aid into Gaza, and let's work to bring a durable end to the suffering and misery of Hamas’ many victims."
Security Council Resolution 2735, which was adopted in June, calls on Hamas to accept a proposed hostage and ceasefire agreement with Israel.
British envoy Barbara Woodward, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the council this month, expressed regret over the failure of the council to adopt the resolution but vowed to “keep striving, alongside our partners, to bring this war to a close.”
She said: “The deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic and unacceptable. All of Gaza is at risk of famine, and in some areas this is likely to be imminent. Yet the aid reaching civilians remains entirely insufficient to mitigate this unfolding disaster.
“The unthinkable hardship that civilians are already facing in Gaza is set to get even worse as winter approaches.”
Woodward urged Israeli authorities to take “urgent action to alleviate this crisis. International humanitarian law must be respected by all sides.”
China’s ambassador to the UN, Fu Cong, said that even with the imminent threat of famine in Gaza, “the United States always seems to be able to find a justification to defend Israel.” It is a stance that represents a distortion of international humanitarian law, he added.
“People keep learning something new they never knew before was possible, and how low one can stoop. No wonder people feel angry,” said Fu.
“People’s indignation also stems from the fact that the continued supply of weapons from the US (to Israel) has become a decisive factor in the war lasting so long, causing so many casualties and so much destruction.”
He added: “All hostages must be released. An immediate and unconditional ceasefire must be established. Both are important factors. There should be no conditionality. They cannot be linked to each other because facts have shown that Israel’s military operations in Gaza have long exceeded the scope of rescuing hostages.
“Insistence on setting a precondition for ceasefire is tantamount to giving the green light to continuing the war and condoning the continued killing.”
The Algerian ambassador, Amar Bendjama, told the council after the vote: “Today’s message is clear.
“To the Israeli occupying power: You may continue your genocide and collective punishment of the Palestinian people with complete impunity. In this chamber, you enjoy immunity.
“To the Palestinian people: While the majority of the world stands in solidarity with your plight, tragically, others remain indifferent to your suffering.”
Nicolas de Riviere, France’s permanent representative to the UN, lamented the latest failure by the council to help bring an end to the war.
“France voted in favor of this resolution and deeply regrets that the (Security Council) remains unable to speak with one voice on the situation in the Middle East.”
The Russian envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, directly addressed his US counterpart and accused him of being responsible for the deaths “of tens of thousands of innocent civilians (and) the suffering of hostages and illegally detained Palestinians.”
He added: “It was very interesting to hear the American representative today, in the wake of the vote, say that the resolution does not contain provisions on the release of hostages. Well, it does contain such a provision. Perhaps the US representative should read through the resolution before voting against it.”
Fierce battles in southern Lebanon amid ceasefire talk
Hochstein hints at truce, while Hezbollah rejects ‘ending war on enemy terms’
Israeli airstrikes continued to hit southern towns, from Kfarshuba and Rashaya Al-Fakhar to Tyre, Nabatieh and Adloun
Updated 20 November 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI
BEIRUT: Israeli troops raised their flag over the Lebanese town of Chamaa, about 5 kilometers from the border, as they pushed deep into a second line of Lebanese villages.
Elsewhere, fierce battles with Hezbollah fighters took place on Wednesday as Israeli forces advanced toward the strategic coastal town of Biyyadah.
The Israeli moves coincided with an announcement by US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut that “additional progress” had been made on the US proposal for a ceasefire.
Hochstein expressed hope that a “conclusion can be reached” after he travels to Israel for talks.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and his adviser Ali Hamdan, tasked by Hezbollah with leading external negotiations, held several rounds of discussions with Hochstein in the parliamentary headquarters and at the US Embassy in Awkar.
On Wednesday afternoon, Hochstein said: “(We have) made additional progress, so I will travel from here in a couple of hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can.”
Israeli media reported that Hochstein will hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah described the US proposal as “a document of mutual commitments between the Lebanese and Israeli sides concerning the mechanism for ceasing fire under the framework of implementing Resolution 1701.”
He added: “We are facing indirect negotiations with the enemy over a document of commitments, somewhat similar to what happened in 2006 but under different circumstances. We are handling the proposals based on fundamental principles tied to our sovereignty and the protection of our land and people.”
Fadlallah said that Hezbollah remains active on the ground and said that “the war will not conclude by imposing the enemy’s conditions.”
Leaked information regarding the discussions indicated that Hezbollah agreed to include a US party in the monitoring committee for the implementation of the resolution, rather than the British or Germans.
The committee is expected to include representatives from Washington, Paris, an Arab country, potentially Egypt, and the UN.
Hochstein oversaw meetings on the ceasefire proposals that included former President Michel Aoun at his residence, and Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces party, at his home.
Meanwhile, confrontations in southern Lebanon intensified amid protests from UNIFIL forces and other participating countries regarding the targeting of their positions, and the injuring of peacekeeping soldiers by both Israel and Hezbollah.
The leadership of UNIFIL said on Tuesday that “peacekeeping forces and their facilities were targeted in three separate incidents in southern Lebanon, resulting in injuries to six peacekeepers. Four Ghanaian soldiers were injured by a missile while performing their duties, which was likely launched by non-governmental entities within Lebanon, striking their base east of the town of Ramiayh.”
UNIFIL said that despite these challenges, peacekeeping forces will remain in their locations, and continue to monitor and report violations of Resolution 1701.
As Israeli attacks targeted the Lebanese army for the second day in a row, Lebanon announced the death of four of its soldiers.
Three were killed in a attack on their post in Sarafand on Tuesday, while a fourth was killed by an Israeli strike on a medical army vehicle on the road linking Burj Al-Muluk and Qalaa.
The Israeli army claimed that it “killed two Hezbollah leaders responsible for missile attacks that targeted northern Israel, including the commander of the Lebanese coastal sector’s anti-tank unit.”
It also revealed late on Tuesday that Ali Munir Shaito, who is in charge of Hezbollah’s southern front in Syria, was the target of last Sunday’s airstrike on Beirut’s Mar Elias district.
Israeli airstrikes continued to hit southern towns, from Kfarshuba and Rashaya Al-Fakhar to Tyre, Nabatieh and Adloun.
However, Beirut and its southern suburb had a second day of cautious calm.
According to the Lebanese Foreign Ministry complaint to the Security Council, a total of 27 civil defense personnel have been killed by Israeli attacks, while 76 have been injured.
As of Tuesday, the death toll in the overall Israeli war on Lebanon reached 3,544, along with 15,036 injuries.
How Israel’s UNRWA ban will impact Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank
Knesset has passed two bills banning the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency from operating within Israeli territory and cooperating with authorities
Aid organizations warn that the legislation, slated to take effect in January, will have “catastrophic” consequences for Gaza amid “apocalyptic” situation
Updated 21 November 2024
ANAN TELLO
LONDON: In just a matter of weeks, the main UN agency providing vital services to millions of Palestinian refugees will no longer be able to do so. Israel is expected to enforce new laws banning UNRWA, a move the agency says will halt its vast operations providing aid, health care and schooling in Gaza and the West Bank.
Not only will lifesaving services be taken away, but Palestinians fear that if UNRWA comes to an end, so too will a fundamental pillar of their refugee status — the right of return to their homes.
Israel claims UNRWA has been infiltrated by militants, but the agency’s chiefs deny this and they, along with humanitarian groups and many governments, warn of catastrophic consequences if UNRWA stops operating.
For Gaza, which is on the verge of famine after a 13-month onslaught from Israel that has killed nearly 44,000 people, the outcomes are unthinkable.
On Oct. 28, the Israeli parliament passed two laws by overwhelming majority that will make it impossible for UNRWA to continue its work in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
The first law barred UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory while the second prohibited Israeli authorities from engaging with the agency in any form.
The bills, set to take effect within 90 days of their adoption, did not provide an alternative organization to UNRWA for delivering aid or essential services.
Over a series of press conferences, briefings and statements, Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA commissioner-general, has become increasingly exasperated as he pleads with other nations to put pressure on Israel to halt the action.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. (Supplied)
He says not only will the collapse of his agency have devastating humanitarian consequences for Palestinians, but also removing services like education will fuel radicalization and have a destabilizing effect on the Middle East.
Lazzarini argues that such a step by a UN member state against a UN agency would also significantly undermine the international rules-based order that those members signed up to.
Shortly after the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, passed the bills, he warned that the vote “sets a dangerous precedent.”
DID YOUKNOW?
• 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza depend on aid from UNRWA.
• 600,000 Children in Gaza receive education through UNRWA.
• 17,000 UNRWA staff in the occupied Palestinian territories.
(Source:UNRWA)
“It opposes the UN Charter and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law,” he said.
Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general, slammed the vote as an “unconscionable law” and “an outright attack on the rights of Palestinian refugees.”
UNRWA was established by a UN General Assembly resolution in response to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land in 1948, which led to the formation of the Israeli state. In what became known as the Nakba, meaning catastrophe, 700,000 people were driven from their homes.
Palestinian refugees queue for food distributed by the UNRWA at a camp in Gaza on November 9, 1956. (AFP)
The agency was tasked with helping refugees scattered across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria until they could return home. With no “right of return” solution ever reached with Israel, UNRWA’s work has continued, providing many services in lieu of a functioning government.
Yet despite the agency’s work, it has always faced criticism from Israel. One of the main charges against UNRWA is that it perpetuates the Palestinian refugee issue by keeping alive the notion of a “right of return” passed down through generations — something Israel views as unrealistic and unimaginable.
Palestinians believe that without the agency, their status as refugees would be undermined and they fear they would be pressured into settling wherever they have ended up.
Lazzarini said on Monday that Israel’s aim in attacking UNRWA was to strip Palestinians of their refugee status. But he insisted that whether his agency existed or not, their refugee status would be protected by UN General Assembly resolutions.
A right-wing Israeli protesters demonstrate in front of the UNRWA office in Jerusalem on March 20, 2024. (AFP)
In recent years, Israel has increasingly accused the agency of employing Hamas members and other militants among its 13,000-strong Gaza workforce.
Hamas has been in power since seizing the territory from Palestinian rivals Fatah in 2007 and UNRWA has had to tread a fine line between the militant group and Israel.
It comes under pressure from both sides about the curriculum taught in its schools or whether it is showing bias toward one side or the other.
In late January, Israeli authorities accused several UNRWA employees of involvement in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people and resulted in the capture of 250 hostages.
The UN secretary-general ordered an investigation which reported in August that nine staff members may have been involved in the attacks. UNRWA fired the employees but said it had supplied full lists of the people it employs since 2011.
Israeli protesters demonstrate in front of the UNRWA office in Jerusalem on March 20, 2024. (AFP)
Many Western countries suspended their funding for UNRWA while the investigation was carried out, a major blow given the agency’s budget is almost entirely funded by donations from UN member states. All except the US have since reinstated the money.
An independent review of the agency published in April said UNRWA had a “robust” framework to deal with neutrality but that issues such as staff publicly expressing political views and textbooks with problematic content being used in some UNRWA schools persisted.
Nevertheless, the level to which UNRWA is entwined with the fabric of Palestinian society means that removing its services would leave a huge gap in how the territories function.
Of most immediate concern, the Israeli legislation would remove desperately needed aid and health care from Gaza.
Palestinian children queue for food in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Nov. 18, 2024. (AP)
In a statement on X after the vote, Lazzarini described the laws as “nothing less than collective punishment” that will “only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell.”
More than 2 million people in Gaza have endured relentless Israeli bombing and a deepening humanitarian crisis since the war started. The population is fully dependent on the aid allowed into the territory by Israel. Families suffer severe shortages of food, clean water, medical supplies and shelter.
The bombing and military operations destroyed essential infrastructure, razed entire districts and displaced almost the entire population. Along with the tens of thousands killed, mostly women and children, more than 100,000 have been injured, according to Gaza’s health authority.
Over two-thirds of UNRWA’s premises in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli strikes. (AFP)
An UNRWA spokesperson told Arab News that without the agency “the delivery of food, shelter, and health care to most of Gaza’s population would grind to a halt.”
A joint statement by 15 UN and humanitarian organizations on Nov. 1 warned that the legislation against UNRWA would be a “catastrophe” for the aid response in Gaza where “there is no alternative to UNRWA.”
Indeed, relief groups have repeatedly accused Israeli authorities of aid obstruction. While Israel has denied this, data analysis by aid organizations operating in Gaza found that 83 percent of food aid does not make it into the enclave.
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told a UN briefing in Geneva in mid-November that aid access across Gaza has been “at a low point.”
“Chaos suffering, despair, death, destruction, displacement is at a high point,” he said, adding that delivering assistance in northern Gaza was “near impossible.”
A Palestinian woman holds the shrouded body of child killed in Israeli bombardment, at a health clinic in the area of Tel al-Sultan in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on May 26, 2024. (AFP)
The ramifications of the new laws will extend beyond Gaza, across the entire occupied Palestinian territories.
“In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, without UNRWA, health, education and social services to Palestine refugees would fall apart,” the UNRWA spokesperson said.
Addressing a UN General Assembly committee last week, Lazzarini warned the risk of UNRWA’s collapse “threatens the lives and futures of individuals and communities.”
UNRWA delivers education to more than 660,000 children across Gaza and at least 50,000 in the West Bank. If the agency's work stops, “an entire generation will be denied the right to education,” Lazzarini added: “Their future will be sacrificed, sowing the seeds for marginalization and extremism.”
Palestinian children play at UNRWA-run school in the Qalandia refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Nov. 14, 2024. (AFP)
The agency provides health care services to half a million Palestinian refugees, covering 70-80 percent of needs in Gaza before the war.
Banning UNRWA would also put at risk the jobs of 17,000 employees in Gaza and the West Bank.
More than 240 UNRWA personnel have already been killed in the Gaza war and others have been detained and tortured.
UNRWA is a “casualty” of the Gaza war and “not a party” to the Israel-Palestine conflict, Lazzarini said.
“Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, and Israeli forces have allegedly used our premises for military purposes,” he added.
Opinion
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Away from Gaza, concern is growing that the demise of UNRWA would erode the refugee status of Palestinians, further weakening their cause.
The non-governmental organization Medical Aid for Palestinians warned that discrediting UNRWA “undermined the international legal framework protecting their (Palestinian refugees) rights, including the right of return.”
Rafe Jabari, a researcher on the political sociology of Arab states, told Arab News that UNRWA plays a critical role in “keeping the refugee question on track” while providing the international community with essential data and insights on the situation in Gaza.
A Palestinian girl walks past a World Health Organization (WHO) storage center destroyed in a recent Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Nov. 19, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli officials have “banned the entry of international journalists” into Gaza and “are now attacking the most important, neutral, and impartial organization (UNRWA),” he said.
“By eliminating this important source of information, the Israelis aim to obscure their practices and policies on the ground, undermining the credibility of other sources and, in turn, denying the outcomes of their actions.”
Despite the widespread concern over UNRWA’s future, there is no sign that Israel may be willing to halt the ban and little detail on how its work could be replaced.
“UNRWA may be defined by a single word — failure,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told a meeting of the General Assembly on UNRWA earlier this month. “This idea that UNRWA could not be supplemented is absurd.”
Displaced Palestinians walk amid blood-stained rubble following an Israeli strike that hit a UN-run school where people had taken refuge, in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Nov, 20, 2024. (AFP)
Yet, as the clock ticks toward the ban being enforced, the warnings from the UN grow even louder, with officials saying Israel will have to step in when UNRWA is no longer operating.
Speaking in Geneva on Monday, Lazzarini said while there was no functioning state or institutions for Palestinians, then the role of UNRWA was “irreplaceable.”
