Funding cuts to UN agency for Palestinians would hurt aid in other countries too: Agency head

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) – The UN agency for Palestinian refugees or UNRWA warned Tuesday that funding cuts will also threaten aid to Palestinians in other countries.

“The consequences of donors freezing funding will not only impact our ability to respond to the huge humanitarian need in the Gaza Strip,” Philippe Lazzarini, the agency’s head, wrote on X.

“It will also impact UNRWA activities in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, where we have hundreds of thousands of girls and boys in our schools and where the Agency provides primary healthcare for 2 million Palestine refugees,” he added.

“For many of them, UNRWA is the only lifeline.”

Several countries suspended their funding to UNRWA last month following Israeli accusations that 12 of the agency's thousands of employees took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The agency is investigating the claims, but has warned cutting off funding risks a catastrophe.

Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following an attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. The ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed more than 29,000 people and injured over 69,000 others.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio