Above photo: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters.
Ireland recently pledged €20 million to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Which Israel accused of being involved in the 7 October attack.
The severe funding crisis facing the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), thanks to US-led cuts, is expected to worsen significantly in the coming months.
UNRWA Chief Philippe Lazzarini asked the countries that recently suspended financial support for UNRWA to “urgently rescind that decision” during a news conference in Ireland on 15 February.
“Our operation will start to be compromised as from March, but April will be really the month where we will be under deep, deep, deep negative cashflow,” Lazzarini said, emphasizing that the agency is facing an “existential threat.”
His comments come after Ireland pledged €20 million to the UN agency and urged others who cut their funding to resume support for UNRWA.
The US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, and Austria are among the western nations that cut funding for UNRWA last month, pending an internal inquiry.
The suspension of funding came after Israel alleged UNRWA employees were involved in the 7 October operation against Israeli settlements. Israel also claimed that some of the agency’s facilities and vehicles were used during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
“The Secretary-General is horrified by extremely serious allegations which implicate several UNRWA staff members in the terror attacks of 7 October in Israel. The UN is taking swift action. The Secretary-General immediately activated an investigation by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS),” UNRWA said on 8 February.
Israel has not publicized any of the evidence it claims to have against the UN agency.
Over 140 UNRWA employees have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza. The majority of the agency’s workers are Palestinian.