Germany to resume funding UN agency for Palestinian refugees

By Oliver Towfigh Nia

BERLIN (AA) - Germany will resume funding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or the UNRWA, the Foreign Ministry and Development Aid Ministry announced on Wednesday.

"By continuing the acute cooperation, we are supporting UNRWA's vital and currently irreplaceable role in providing care for the people in Gaza, because other international aid organizations are also currently dependent on UNRWA's operational structures in Gaza," the ministries said in a joint statement.

A strong ally of Israel, Germany had joined several countries, including the US and Britain, and suspended their funding to UNRWA after accusations by Israel that a dozen of the agency's 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel.

While German cooperation with UNRWA in the Gaza Strip has been on hold since the end of January, funding continued to flow for the aid agency's work in other regions of the Middle East.

At the end of March, the German government allocated €45 million (around $48 million) to the Palestinian relief organization for work in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank.

According to the government, it supported the UN agency with more than €200 million in 2023 alone.

The federal government has intensively dealt with the allegations made by Israel against UNRWA and discussed this closely with the Israeli government, the UN, and other international donors, according to the statement.

It will coordinate closely with its closest international partners to disburse further funds. In view of the catastrophic situation of the people in the Gaza Strip, there have recently been repeated calls to continue supporting the Palestinian relief organization, it added.

At the same time, Germany called for the swift implementation of the recommendations of the UN fact-finding report.

Particular importance should be attached to strengthening the UNRWA internal audit and staffing it with international UN staff, improved external supervision of project management, further continuous comparison of the UNRWA employee lists with the Israeli security authorities, and the expansion of internal training, it noted.