Israel has not offered credible proof to assist its claims that UNRWA employees had been members of “terrorist” teams, an impartial evaluation for the United Nations led by a former French international minister has stated.
The claims towards the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) led to an enormous funding deficit as a number of donor international locations introduced cuts.
The impartial evaluation into the aid company’s practices was additionally commissioned, in addition to a separate investigation into the October assault itself, by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services.
The evaluation, headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and supported by three Nordic analysis institutes, makes clear that Israel did not assist its claims about UNRWA employees belonging to both Hamas’s navy wing or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
In January, Israel accused UNRWA employees members of abetting the October 7 assault on Israel, which resulted within the deaths of 1,139 folks and the seize of an unknown variety of folks, considered in extra of 200.
In the unique six-page file, seen by Al Jazeera, Israeli intelligence supplied plenty of accusations towards UNRWA with out proof, together with that the company’s amenities had been utilized by Hamas in its October assault. Moreover, in keeping with the file, 12 employees members had participated straight within the assault, with 190 others providing intelligence and logistical assist.
In March, the Israeli navy claimed it had proof implicating 4 extra UNRWA employees members.
However, the Colonna report notes that Israel has not expressed any considerations concerning the UNRWA worker vetting course of since 2011, making its first complaints concerning the course of in January 2024.
A extra detailed report produced by the Nordic analysis teams supporting Colonna wrote: “Israeli authorities have to date not provided any supporting evidence nor responded to letters from UNRWA in March, and again in April, requesting the names and supporting evidence that would enable UNRWA to open an investigation.”
The teams are the Swedish Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, the Norwegian Chr Michelsen Institute, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
International backtracking
Based solely on the Israeli accusations, 18 donor international locations, together with UNRWA’s principal donor, the United States, suspended funding to the company.
Nevertheless, whereas some – such because the United Kingdom – selected to attend on the findings from the Colonna report, the vast majority of donors had already reversed their preliminary positions and resumed funding, with some, such because the European Union, rising their spending.
Only Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK and the US have maintained funding suspensions. The US will keep its suspension till March 2025, regardless of its personal intelligence providers in February expressing “low confidence” within the Israeli allegations.
Contacted by Al Jazeera, a US Department of State spokesperson confirmed it was “important the allegations made against [UNRWA] are thoroughly investigated”, though the ban on funding was carried out earlier than any such investigation.
A spokesperson for the UK’s Foreign Office informed Al Jazeera that it was “appalled” by the Israeli allegations and was exploring different avenues of getting humanitarian support into Gaza.
Germany, one among Israel’s most steadfast allies, confirmed it had resumed funding for UNRWA actions in all areas besides Gaza.
Impact in Gaza
“We have enough funding to carry us through till June. After that, it’s not clear how we’ll fund our work,” stated Juliette Touma, a UNRWA spokesperson. “No other agency can do what we do.”
“We previously operated throughout Gaza, providing aid and education. However, in late March, Israel said it would block UNRWA food convoys into the north,” she added, referring to the realm the place specialists have declared famine is imminent.
Famine now threatens tens of millions of individuals within the Gaza Strip, in keeping with the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system, which is utilized by support businesses to find out menace ranges.
According to an IPC report, roughly 210,000 folks residing in northern Gaza and Gaza City are seemingly already experiencing famine.
The south and centre of Gaza, together with Deir el-Balah, Khan Younis, and the governorate of Rafah, are labeled as “emergencies” and anticipated to succumb to famine by July if no intervention or ceasefire comes.
“I’ve never known an area enter the IPC system so quickly,” Touma continued. “In Yemen, it took years. In Gaza, it took three months. Gaza has been sealed off.”
“Make no mistake: Hunger is being used as a weapon of war,” she stated.
“Living conditions within the Strip are appalling. We have thousands of people living on top of each other. Many are living in the kind of tent you might set up in a garden. There are massive queues, just for the toilet. As you’d imagine, hygiene is abysmal.” she added.
Exacerbating issues has been a halt within the import of business provides as a consequence of the preventing, which means that toothpaste, cleaning soap and fundamental hygiene objects are troublesome to acquire.
“In terms of disease, we’re lucky that there was a high vaccination rate among the population. However, you can’t vaccinate against hunger,” Touma stated.
Israeli opposition
Israel’s objection to UNRWA’s work among the many Palestinian inhabitants has lengthy been a bone of competition.
Last week, the pinnacle of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, informed the UN Security Council that Israel sought to finish the company’s operations in Gaza.
“The agency’s requests to deliver aid to the north are repeatedly denied. Our staff are barred from coordination meetings between Israel and humanitarian actors,” Lazzarini stated.
Continuing his feedback, he informed the 15-member physique that the company was the sufferer of “an insidious campaign to end” its actions, with “serious implications for international peace and security”.
Israel has prompt that different businesses, such because the UN World Food Programme, may fill the breach ought to UNRWA’s work in Gaza be halted.
But given the extent of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, no different company seems to have the aptitude to switch UNRWA’s group of 30,000, many already deployed in Gaza, with workflows and programs in place.
Alternatives to the sort of entry UNRWA has utilised all through the struggle have solely had a restricted affect on assuaging the disaster.
Despite claims in current days from each the US and Israel that further support had been allowed in, the UN has nonetheless reported that flows are painfully decrease than these wanted to maintain the inhabitants trapped in Gaza.
Backers due to this fact argue that UNRWA urgently must be allowed to work in Gaza with out restrictions and with the complete assist of the worldwide group.
It’s a place additionally held within the Colonna evaluation, which notes that the company’s work was “indispensible”, and that UNRWA “remains pivotal in providing life-saving humanitarian aid and essential social services, particularly in health and education, to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank”.
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