Post by account_disabled on Feb 13, 2024 20:37:53 GMT -8
The colossal humanitarian needs of more than 2 million people in Gaza now risk worsening following the decision by 16 donor countries to suspend financial support to UNRWA. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee south due to shelling and fighting in Khan Younis over the past week, adding to the more than 1.4 million people already crammed into the southern governorate of Rafah. . Most live in makeshift structures, tents or outdoors, and now also fear they will no longer receive food or other humanitarian assistance from UNRWA. “Rafah has become a sea of people fleeing shelling,” says Thomas White, UNRWA Gaza director and UN deputy humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory. Most of those fleeing Khan Younis have already been displaced several times and many are forced to leave UNRWA's largest shelter at the Khan Younis training centre. UNRWA staff, forced to flee their homes, continue to deliver food and tents to the newly displaced. Across the Gaza Strip, almost 2 million people – the vast majority women and children – depend on UNRWA for their very survival as the Agency manages overcrowded shelters, food assistance and primary health care.
As hostilities continue, humanitarian conditions worsen and humanitarian access remains restricted. UNRWA has had very little access to the north of the Strip, where famine is looming, since the war began. According to White: “UNRWA received reports that people in the area are grinding bird feed into flour. We Honduras Phone Number List continue to coordinate with the Israeli army to be able to go north, but this has largely been denied. When our convoys are finally allowed to reach the area, people run to the trucks to get the food and often eat it on the spot,” he adds. UNRWA is the largest humanitarian organization in Gaza. Of its 13,000 employees, more than 3,000 continue to work, they are the backbone of humanitarian aid operations. “It is difficult to imagine Gazans surviving this crisis without UNRWA,” says White. Following Israeli accusations of the involvement of some UNRWA personnel in the abhorrent attacks on Israel on 7 October, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini took the decision to immediately dismiss these individuals in the interest of the Agency and appealed to the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services in New York, which launched an investigation.
Full accountability and transparency of the process is expected, if the accusations are substantiated. Shortly after UNRWA's announcement, several donor countries suspended $440 million in funding to the Agency. ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER NEXT MESSAGE You make us independent We only answer to partners: to people like you who believe that our work matters. Therefore, if you regularly read us and believe in journalism with values, we ask for your collaboration so that we can continue to be independent. It will take you less than a minute and you can do it from here with fees ranging from €1 per month. Although it may seem like a small amount, added to those of many more people, it is what makes it possible for us to exist. Many people, with small decisions, can do great things. Make independent journalism possible. “As the war in Gaza continues unabated, and as the International Court of Justice calls for more humanitarian assistance, it is time to strengthen, not weaken, UNRWA. The Agency remains the largest aid organization in one of the countries with the most serious and complex humanitarian crises in the world,” says Philippe Lazzarini. “I echo the call of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to resume funding to UNRWA.
As hostilities continue, humanitarian conditions worsen and humanitarian access remains restricted. UNRWA has had very little access to the north of the Strip, where famine is looming, since the war began. According to White: “UNRWA received reports that people in the area are grinding bird feed into flour. We Honduras Phone Number List continue to coordinate with the Israeli army to be able to go north, but this has largely been denied. When our convoys are finally allowed to reach the area, people run to the trucks to get the food and often eat it on the spot,” he adds. UNRWA is the largest humanitarian organization in Gaza. Of its 13,000 employees, more than 3,000 continue to work, they are the backbone of humanitarian aid operations. “It is difficult to imagine Gazans surviving this crisis without UNRWA,” says White. Following Israeli accusations of the involvement of some UNRWA personnel in the abhorrent attacks on Israel on 7 October, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini took the decision to immediately dismiss these individuals in the interest of the Agency and appealed to the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services in New York, which launched an investigation.
Full accountability and transparency of the process is expected, if the accusations are substantiated. Shortly after UNRWA's announcement, several donor countries suspended $440 million in funding to the Agency. ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER NEXT MESSAGE You make us independent We only answer to partners: to people like you who believe that our work matters. Therefore, if you regularly read us and believe in journalism with values, we ask for your collaboration so that we can continue to be independent. It will take you less than a minute and you can do it from here with fees ranging from €1 per month. Although it may seem like a small amount, added to those of many more people, it is what makes it possible for us to exist. Many people, with small decisions, can do great things. Make independent journalism possible. “As the war in Gaza continues unabated, and as the International Court of Justice calls for more humanitarian assistance, it is time to strengthen, not weaken, UNRWA. The Agency remains the largest aid organization in one of the countries with the most serious and complex humanitarian crises in the world,” says Philippe Lazzarini. “I echo the call of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to resume funding to UNRWA.