Norway’s Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide has disclosed that his country sent $26m to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East the UN agency.
“UNRWA is the backbone of humanitarian efforts in Gaza. Its services are critical for millions of people in extreme need,” the Minister posted on X.
More than a dozen countries suspended funds for the UNRWA, a crucial provider of humanitarian aid to Gaza, after Israel accused 12 of the agency’s employees of participating in the October 7 attacks.
These countries traditionally contribute over three-quarters of the UNRWA budget.
Norway’s Minister of International Development, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim said in a statement that the people in Gaza are starving and health services have collapsed.
“In addition to all of the ramifications of the war, many are dying from infectious diseases and a lack of healthcare. Our support for UNRWA’s efforts is more important than ever.”
Anne Beathe Tvinnereim
According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW), countries cutting funds to the UN’s Palestine refugee agency are guilty of “callous indifference” to the suffering of people in Gaza who are in desperate need of “lifesaving food, water, and medicine.”
Akshaya Kumar, HRW’s crisis advocacy Director said, “Despite mounting risks of famine and a binding order by the World Court in a case about genocide, Israel’s Foreign Minister has now announced that he will lead a brazen effort to shut down” UNRWA.
“Unless governments reverse their decisions to suspend aid to UNRWA, the main humanitarian channel into Gaza, they risk contributing to the current catastrophe,” Kumar asserted.
Meanwhile, the UN’s aid agency, OCHA, said in its daily update that the risk of famine in Gaza is “increasing by the day,” especially for some 300,000 people in northern Gaza who have been largely cut off from humanitarian assistance.
OCHA reported that the World Food Programme has warned that the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza City in the north is “not enough to prevent a famine.”
It added that the last time that the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) was able to carry out food distribution in the north of the territory was on January 23, 2024.
The UN also reports, citing Gaza’s Ministry of Health, that 123 Palestinians were killed and 169 injured between the afternoons of February 6 and 7.
Report Claims Canadian officials Still Have Not Seen Intelligence Linking UNRWA With Hamas
Canadian government sources told a news agency that Israel still has not shared evidence with Canada to substantiate its claim that 12 employees of UNRWA were involved in some capacity in the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and the affiliated group Islamic Jihad.
Canadian officials told the news outlet that Canada’s decision to defund the UN agency was a reaction to UNRWA’s decision to dismiss the staffers, which created the impression that the agency saw Israel’s allegation as credible.
Earlier this week, a British news channel obtained a copy of a dossier that the government of Israel shared with the U.K. government, which also cut funding to UNRWA.
The channel reported that the dossier was only six pages long.
The news service said it rewords long-standing Israeli government complaints about UNRWA and alleges the involvement of UNRWA staff in the Oct 7 attack, but “provides no evidence” to back up Israel’s explosive allegations against the UN agency.
Another British news channel also reviewed the dossier and reached a similar conclusion.
It is said that Israel has refused to provide the intelligence it says backs up its allegations, either to UNRWA or to the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the UN body assigned to investigate.
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