UN chief calls UNRWA a ‘lifeline of hope and dignity,’ as Israel seeks alternatives
Antonio Guterres says beleaguered agency’s services must keep working for those who depend on them; Israel seeks to shut out UNRWA over ties to terror
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Monday defended the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, describing it as a “lifeline of hope and dignity.”
During a visit to the Wihdat refugee camp in the Jordanian capital Amman, Guterres said it would be “cruel and incomprehensible” to halt UNRWA’s vital services to Palestinian refugees across the region.
His remarks come as the agency faces a financing crisis after several key donor countries cut off funding after Jerusalem said a dozen of its staff were involved in the devastating October 7 Hamas onslaught on Israel, and some 1,500 had ties to terror groups.
On Sunday, the chief of the UN agency, Philippe Lazzarini, said that Israel had definitively barred it from making aid deliveries in northern Gaza, where the threat of famine is highest. Israel is seeking to shut out and find alternatives to the UN agency due to its links with terrorism and has started working with other groups in Gaza, such as the UN World Food Programme, to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians instead of UNRWA.
“We must strive to keep the one-of-a-kind services that UNRWA provides flowing because that keeps hope flowing,” Guterres said during his visit to the camp.
“In a darkening world, UNRWA is the one ray of light for millions of people. I see that hope here. Now more than ever, we must not take away that hope.”
He also sought to “honor the 171 women and men of UNRWA who have been killed in Gaza — the largest number of deaths of UN staff in our history.”
After its ties with terror groups were revealed, UNRWA’s biggest donor, the United States, and several other countries, paused their funding, putting the agency’s future in doubt. Some countries including Canada, Australia, and Sweden have since restored funds.
The agency argues that it fills an essential role in providing relief for Gazans, especially during the current war with Hamas, underlined by recent struggles to deliver aid to parts of the Strip, which has led to ratcheted-up criticism of Israel.
UNRWA was established in 1949 following the war surrounding the founding of Israel, when 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes.
It employs some 30,000 Palestinians to serve the civic and humanitarian needs of 5.9 million descendants of those refugees — in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and vast camps in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. In Gaza, it is providing shelter for some one million people newly displaced by the war between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the October 7 massacre.
Israel has long pushed for UNRWA’s closure, arguing that it helps perpetuate the conflict with the Palestinians since it confers refugee status upon descendants of those originally displaced around the time of Israel’s War of Independence, unlike other refugee groups around the world.
The agency has also been found to employ antisemitic staffers and use textbooks Israel deemed antisemitic and inciting.
UNRWA fired 12 of its employees in January after it received evidence from Israel that they participated in the massacre that sparked the ongoing war, when Hamas-led terrorists killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 253 people as hostages in Gaza, over half of whom remain captive.
Following the revelation and funding freeze, the UN announced an independent review of the agency. Last week, the review group submitted an interim report that found the relief agency has mechanisms in place to ensure its neutrality, but also deficiencies that must be addressed.
Next, the panel will develop its final report with recommendations for how UNRWA should address neutrality concerns going forward and present it to the public on April 20.
