UN member states express 'collective alarm' over Israel's measures against UNRWA

By Merve Aydogan

HAMILTON, Canada (AA) - A group of UN ambassadors, who are part of the signatories of the ‘Shared Commitments’ document to support the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), expressed their concerns on Thursday over Israel's measures taken against the agency.

At least 123 UN ambassadors, including Türkiye's permanent representative to the UN Ahmet Yildiz, gathered in front of the UN Security Council and delivered a joint statement to the press.

"We collectively express our alarm about the measures taken by Israel against UNRWA, including the draft legislation before the Israeli parliament that could prevent UNRWA from continuing its life saving operations in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in the Gaza Strip, where the situation is a humanitarian catastrophe and a civilian sufferings and needs are immense," Jordan's UN envoy Mahmoud Daifallah said on behalf of the group at a news conference.

Describing UNRWA's role as "indispensable and irreplaceable," Daifallah stressed that the agency is the backbone of humanitarian aid provided to Palestinian refugees.​​​​​​​

Kuwait's UN envoy Tareq Al-Banai warned against Israel's move against UNRWA, and said: "We stress the serious humanitarian, political and security risks that would result from any interruption or suspension of its vital work."

Al-Banai expressed his gratitude to UNRWA staff and stated that they followed the agency's work with great appreciation.

Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, pointed out that the gathering of 123 countries today sent a very strong message that "UNRWA is indispensable."

"We will defend it. It will continue its mandate, stemming from a mandate in the general assembly," he said, expressing gratitude to the member states on behalf of Palestinian refugees.

Mansour also described UNRWA as one of the "best successful" stories of the UN and the multilateral system.

UNRWA has been hindered from doing its job since January 2024, when Israel accused 12 of its thousands of employees in Gaza of being involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Amid a probe of the claims, at least 16 countries, including the US, paused or suspended funding to the agency, and its aid work for Gaza’s famine-stricken population has suffered. But most of the key donors resumed aid after an independent review of UNRWA found that Israel had not provided any evidence to back its claims.

UNRWA was created by the UN General Assembly more than 70 years ago to assist Palestinians who were forcibly displaced from their land.

Israel dramatically escalated its massive bombing campaign across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,437 people, injuring over 4,123 others, and displacing more than 1.34 million people.

The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Israel's war on the Gaza Strip. More than 42,400 people, most of them women and children, have been killed since the war began in the wake of Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack on Israel.

Israel began its ground invasion of Lebanon on Oct. 1.