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UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini stated Saturday that the company had no information of the underground tunnel and had neither the “navy and safety experience nor the capability” to conduct military-grade inspections of the premises. Israel, he added, had not formally notified UNRWA of the findings underneath the compound, which employees evacuated on Oct. 12 amid Israeli bombardment.
“Oh, you knew,” COGAT, an arm of the Israeli Protection Ministry, fired again on X. “You selected to disregard the information so you’ll be able to later try to deny them.”
UNRWA has been underneath intense scrutiny since late final month, when Israel alleged that 12 of its staff had been concerned within the Oct. 7 assault led by Hamas, wherein gunmen killed 1,200 individuals in southern Israel and took greater than 250 hostages. Six of the company’s staff had been alleged to have crossed into Israel on Oct. 7 and 4 had been concerned in kidnapping Israelis, in accordance with an intelligence file compiled by the Israeli authorities and reviewed by The Washington Put up. The doc didn’t lay out proof in opposition to the accused.
The claims prompted the US and Germany, UNRWA’s two greatest donors, to droop funding together with no less than 14 different nations. Amid a looming famine in Gaza, the company is attempting to stretch dwindling assets previous the tip of February because it pleads with Washington and others to revive greater than $400 million in suspended funds.
The USA, whose contribution accounts for greater than 80 % of these funds, has conditioned their launch on the findings of a U.N. investigation. Israel has not publicly detailed its claims concerning the staff or formally shared the allegations and supporting proof with UNRWA, in accordance with the United Nations.
UNRWA’s efforts in Gaza, which embody feeding and housing lots of of 1000’s of Palestinians, are more and more precarious, Lazzarini stated Friday. Israel’s Financial institution Leumi has frozen UNRWA’s account, he stated, and the Israeli finance minister has threatened to cancel the company’s tax advantages.
A month’s price of meals for 1.1 million Gazans has been held up at Israel’s southern Ashdod port, Lazzarini stated, after Israeli authorities advised the contractor “to not transfer, to not deal with and to not settle for any cost.”
UNRWA stated it has additionally been unable to ship help to hunger-stricken Gazans within the north since Jan. 23. Israeli naval forces final week fired on a meals convoy making an attempt to journey there, in accordance with UNRWA Gaza director Thomas White. Israel’s navy has not commented on the incident.
There isn’t any clear various to UNRWA in Gaza, the place greater than 28,000 individuals have been killed in the course of the battle, in accordance with the Gaza Well being Ministry. The World Meals Program stated in late December that 9 in 10 individuals had been residing on lower than one meal a day. Some households have resorted to consuming animal feed, and plenty of are consuming soiled water. Now, Israel has warned it’s planning a navy operation in Rafah, residence to some 1.4 million displaced Gazans who’ve nowhere else to go.
State Division spokesman Vedant Patel stated final week that the company’s work in Gaza is “essential” and that Washington was searching for different donors to choose up the slack in funding.
The European Union, UNRWA’s third-largest donor, introduced final month that it might not minimize funding however known as for an audit of the group by E.U. specialists. It’s unclear whether or not the assessment will be accomplished earlier than the bloc is scheduled to make its subsequent $88 million cost on the finish of this month.
Lazzarini visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates final week to hunt monetary and diplomatic assist. He was “cautiously optimistic” that Arab states within the Persian Gulf states would assist fill the funding hole, he stated Friday, however he warned that UNRWA remained on the point of collapse.
Lazzarini fired 10 of the 12 staff accused in reference to the Oct. 7 assault — the opposite two had been lifeless — earlier than investigating the Israeli claims, a transfer he stated was essential to reveal how severely UNRWA took the allegations.
The United Nations’ inner watchdog, the Workplace of Inner Oversight Providers, has launched an investigation, with preliminary findings anticipated to be offered to member states in about three weeks, Lazzarini stated Friday.
Whereas the workplace has labored in battle zones in Somalia, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo, its investigators will face formidable challenges in an enclave underneath assault, in accordance with Tamara Alrifai, an UNRWA spokesperson in Amman, Jordan.
“The truth that persons are on the transfer always with a number of displacements, with very patchy telecommunications, would make it tough to have the type of frequency of contact that any piece of labor requires, not to mention an investigation of this magnitude,” she stated.
UNRWA has ordered its personal impartial investigation into company protocols and insurance policies, to be led by former French overseas minister Catherine Colonna. A ultimate report is anticipated to be made public by late April.
UNRWA has stated it burned by way of its emergency monetary reserves after President Donald Trump minimize funding in 2018. Although President Biden restored help in 2021, the company has remained chronically underfunded.
Now, amid unprecedented want in Gaza, UNRWA says it’s functioning month-to-month and that cash is quick operating out.
“Our operations throughout the area might be severely compromised on the finish of February,” Alrifai stated. “We try internally a variety of monetary administration ways that allow companies to proceed all through the month of March.”
Solely 3,000 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff in Gaza are capable of work, she stated, however all the workforce there and 17,000 others throughout the area proceed to be paid — no less than for now.
Funds into pension funds may very well be delayed to maintain paying instant salaries, Alrifai stated. The company can also be trying right into a mortgage from U.N. headquarters in New York.
UNRWA was based in 1949 to assist Palestinians who fled or had been pressured from their properties in the course of the institution of Israel. Over the a long time, the company has taken on many capabilities of a state, operating faculties, medical facilities and meals help packages in Palestinian refugee camps which have turn into city slums — not solely in Gaza and the occupied West Financial institution but in addition in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
Israeli authorities have lengthy accused the company of working with, or no less than turning a blind eye to, Hamas operatives in Gaza. UNRWA denies the claims.
An Israeli official, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate delicate points, advised The Put up that the federal government is exploring “different choices for bringing help to civilians in Gaza,” however that no plans have been made.
Israeli authorities demanded final week that “accountable” U.N. businesses tackle UNRWA’s mission in Gaza, echoing a long-standing demand by some Israeli politicians to dismantle the company. However no different U.N. group operates on the scale of UNRWA or has the flexibility to ramp up operations to interchange it, Alrifai stated. And businesses can’t unilaterally change the mandate given to them by the U.N. Basic Meeting.
Inside Gaza, some UNRWA staff concern they might lose their livelihoods.
“Who will give us ensures that none of us might be persecuted underneath any pretext that Israel and the world deem inconsistent with their requirements?” stated one 27-year worker, chatting with The Put up on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to speak to the media.
Colleagues had been “overcome with nervousness” about shedding their salaries and felt “underneath fixed surveillance,” the worker stated.
Greater than 150 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, in accordance with the United Nations, the biggest single lack of life within the group’s historical past.
Louisa Loveluck in Jerusalem, Karen DeYoung in Washington, Emily Rauhala and Beatriz Ríos in Brussels, Hazem Balousha in Amman and Hajar Harb in London contributed to this report.
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