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Due to factors such as pressure from Israel, the "cut off donations" of many European and American countries, and soaring humanitarian needs, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) warned on the 22nd local time that the agency was on the "verge of collapse".
Filipe Lazzarini (infographic).
In a letter to the President of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Denis Francis, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philip Lazzarini, said: "At a time when the Gaza Strip is experiencing unprecedented humanitarian needs, Israel has repeatedly called for the dissolution of UNRWA and several donor countries have frozen donor funds, and the Agency is on the verge of collapse. ”
Lazzarini said that 16 donor countries had suspended a total of about 4 to UNRWAThe $500 million contribution will result in a "serious impact on the agency's operations in the region from March". He said that in the more than four months since the outbreak of the new Palestinian-Israeli conflict, more than 150 UNRWA houses in the Gaza Strip have been shelled, killing more than 390 UNRWA staff members and injuring more than 1,300.
In just over four months, more children, journalists, medical personnel and UN staff have been killed in the conflict in the Gaza Strip than anywhere else in the world," Lazzarini wrote in the letter. ”
On February 21, local time, the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for the Near East in Gaza City.
UNRWA was established in 1949 to provide humanitarian, educational and medical services to registered Palestinian refugees living in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. After the outbreak of the new Palestinian-Israeli conflict last October, the agency played a key role in providing humanitarian assistance to the people of the Gaza Strip.
UNRWA had about 30,000 employees, including as many as 1 in the Gaza Strip30,000 employees. Reuters previously reported that two-thirds of the population of the Gaza Strip had received help from the agency.
Last month, Israel designated 12 UNRWA staff members as involved in a large-scale raid by the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on military and civilian targets in Israel on 7 October last year. More than a dozen countries, including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, subsequently announced that they would stop funding the agency.
Earlier this month, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed former French Prime Minister Katrin Colonna to lead an independent investigation team to assess whether UNRWA was making every effort to ensure neutrality within its mandate. The investigation team is scheduled to submit its initial report by the end of March and issue its final report by the end of April. Guterres said that the external investigation was being conducted at the same time as the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services was conducting an internal investigation.