Decisions to withhold UNWRA funds ‘must be revoked’: UN relief chief

WASHINGTON (AA) – UN relief chief Martin Griffiths has voiced support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, amid the agency’s funding crisis sparked by allegations that some of its employees in the Gaza Strip took part in the October 7 Hamas attack.

“UNRWA is playing an indispensable role in terms of distribution, warehousing, logistics and human resources, with 3,000 staff responding to the current crisis,” Griffiths told a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.

“Decisions to withhold funds from UNRWA must be revoked,” he said.

The agency has taken “swift action” and an investigation is underway, he added.

The agency said it terminated contracts with several employees following allegations by Israel that some of its staffers were involved in the attack.

The US, the UK, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland, Finland, and Japan have suspended funding for the agency, which was established in 1949 to help Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.

“UNRWA’s lifesaving services to over three-quarters of Gaza’s residents should not be jeopardized by the alleged actions of a few individuals,” Griffiths said.

He added that the agency’s support for Palestinians in need in the West Bank, as well as in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, “must also be safeguarded.”

“To put it bluntly and simply: Our humanitarian response for the Occupied Palestinian Territory is dependent on UNRWA being adequately funded and operational,” he said.

Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Palestinian enclave on October 7 and has killed at least 26,900 and injured 65,949 others.

The Israeli war has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while more than half of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.