The European Commission will continue funding the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) as the investigation continues into the alleged involvement of 12 staff members in the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
The European Commission will pay 82 million euros planned for UNRWA in 2024. A first tranche of 50 million euros should be paid next week, the institution said on Friday.
It also undertakes to pay a additional emergency aid of 68 million euros to the Palestinians in the region, through international partners such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent, as concerns grow over the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The Commission launched at the end of January a review regarding its support for UNRWA after the accusations made by Israel. The Jewish state says a dozen personnel participated in Hamas attacks in October, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis and sparked a war in Gaza that cost the lives of some 30,000 Palestinians.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, and the commissioner in charge of Humanitarian Aid, Janez Lenarčič, believe that Israel still had to provide evidence to support these allegations.
Several Western countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, have decided to temporarily suspend their aid in response to these accusations , dealing a blow to the donor-dependent agency which says its deliveries of humanitarian materials have been halved since January.
Other countries, such as Spain, Ireland and Belgium, have maintained or increased their support.
The Commission’s decision to make the payments was taken in light of the measures decided by UNRWA to check its recruitment procedures, strengthen its internal control mechanisms and control its 30,000 employees.
Olivér Várhelyi, European Commissioner in charge of Neighborhood, judges that UNRWA’s commitment to “introducing robust measures to prevent possible malpractice and minimize the risk of allegations is welcome“.
The announcement is seen as a lifeline for the UN agency, which had warned it could close its doors by the end of February if donations did not resume.
A Commission spokesperson said that discussions with UNRWA concerning the conditions for maintaining the flow of aid continued until the start of Friday.
THE humanitarian support from the European Union to the Palestinians, which amounts to 125 million euros in 2024, continued unabated while the review was underway. Friday’s announcement brings EU support for the Palestinians to a total of 275 million euros this year.
Janez Lenarčič welcomes the commitment of additional aid of 68 million euros, while warning that “thousands of lives are at stake“.
A lifeline for UNRWA
The move comes as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens.
On Thursday, at least 112 people were killed when Israeli army opened fire on crowd of Palestinians as an aid convoy entered Gaza City, north of the enclave.
The massacre was condemned by European Union leaders, including Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
This conviction marks a turning point in the tone of the president of the institution who, throughout the conflict, maintained a pro-Israeli position.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, also said the social network it was “shocked and revolted“by the assassination, adding that”international law does not allow double standards“.
The deadly attacks follow repeated warnings from UNRWA that the humanitarian situation in the northern enclave has hampered the delivery of aid due to dangerous conditions.
ADVERTISEMENTUNRWA chief Phillippe Lazzarini made clear in February in Brussels that UN agencies were unable to operate with the minimum protection required because much of the local police force had been killed or were reluctant to help aid convoys because they feared for their safety.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) then announced that it had decided tointerrupt its deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip“until conditions are met to allow safe distributions“.
From then on, pockets of famine appeared in the north of the enclave. The WFP’s famine review committee warns that more than 500,000 peopleor nearly one in four inhabitants, could be affected by famine by May.
Phillippe Lazzarini emphasizes that the suspension of donors had deprived UNRWA of 450 million dollars (418 million euros) for this year alone, and that he had committed to a certain number of countries to assess their expectations in order to enable the release of funds.
Josep Borrell and other EU figures repeat that UNRWA’s work in Gaza was irreplaceable and that withdrawing funds would have “dangerous repercussions on regional stability and would also affect Europeans“.
ADVERTISEMENTIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says UNRWA is “totally infiltrated” by Hamas and calls for the dismantling of the agency.
