By Said Amori
JERUSALEM (AA) – The Arab League warned Sunday of the grave consequences of suspending funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
In a statement, the Cairo-based league said the suspension of funding aims to abandon relief efforts for millions of Palestinian refugees.
“This campaign is not new and aims to liquidate the work of the agency, which serves millions of Palestinian refugees,” Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said.
He warned that the suspension of funding for the UNRWA amid Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip “means leaving Palestinian civilians to starvation and displacement, and implementing the Israeli plan to eliminate their cause once and for all.”
Several Western countries, including the US, UK, Italy, Australia and Canada, have suspended funding for the UN agency following claims by Israel on Friday that agency staffers were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
UNRWA said it terminated contracts with several employees following the Israeli allegations.
The Israeli accusations are not the first of their kind. Since the start of the Gaza war, Israel has accused UNRWA employees of working for Hamas, in what was considered a “justification” for attacking the organization’s schools and facilities in the strip, which houses tens of thousands of displaced people, according to analysts.
The accusations came as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday found South Africa's claim that Israel is committing genocide plausible. The court issued an interim order urging Israel to stop obstructing aid deliveries into Gaza and to improve the humanitarian situation.
Flouting the ICJ’s provisional ruling, Israel continues its onslaught on the Gaza Strip where at least 26,422 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 65,087 others injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel says nearly 1,200 people have been killed in the Hamas attack.
The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala