UNRWA slams Israel for crippling Gaza efforts, aid woefully short of needs

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has accused Israel of deliberately crippling its operations and blocking the entry of vital aid to Gaza amid its more than two-year genocidal war, as Palestinians face the onset of heavy rains and winter with sparse shelter or relief.

“Safeguarding UNRWA’s mandate and operations is required under international law; it is vital to the survival of millions of Palestinians; and it is essential for a political solution,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told the UN General Assembly Fourth Committee on Thursday, citing recent findings by the UN Commission of Inquiry and rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) obligating Israel to lift restrictions on the agency.

Lazzarini also told a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York that severe funding shortfalls were threatening UNRWA’s essential services, urging donor nations for more money, so that it could continue its operations in Gaza despite funding cuts by the United States.

“We run week by week, month by month. I know that as of today, we will be able to process our salaries in November, but have no idea if or no visibility if we will be able to process our salaries in December,” said Lazzarini.

Israel has barred UNRWA from operating on its soil after baselessly accusing some of its employees of participating in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, which triggered the war.

Israel has repeatedly accused UNRWA employees of involvement in the October 7 attack without providing proof.

Following those allegations, the US – historically the agency’s biggest donor – suspended its support.

In the wake of Israel’s decision, UNRWA was forced to repatriate its international staff from Gaza and the occupied West Bank, limiting its food aid distribution abilities.

But it still employs 12,000 people in the Palestinian territory, and its services are vital to Palestinians, Lazzarini insisted.

“About 75,000 people were sheltered in 100 of our premises across the Gaza Strip,” he said.

“We have, over the last two years, provided more than 15 million primary health consultations. Today, the average is about 14,000 a day,” he added, also noting the agency’s joint vaccination campaign with UNICEF and the World Health Organization. UNRWA also provides education for tens of thousands of children.

“In the absence of a significant influx of new funding, the delivery of critical services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region will be compromised,” Lazzarini added.

While US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said UNRWA will have no role in post-war Gaza, in sync with Israeli demands, Lazzarini noted that since the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold, “we have expanded our services”.

‘Terrifying nightmare for a lot of families’

Under the ceasefire, which took effect on October 10, and which Israel has violated hundreds of times, aid deliveries were supposed to be significantly ramped up, with at least 600 trucks a day due to enter Gaza to fulfil the population’s needs.

However, only “around 150 trucks” have been entering Gaza daily, carrying supplies that are not sufficient for the “two million Palestinians that are currently displaced and homeless”, said media’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza.

“There are a lot of Palestinian families who have said that there are no tarps, no tents, and they didn’t receive any humanitarian aid”, despite the arrival of the aid trucks, said Khoudary.

The lack of supplies, coupled with the onset of winter, is a “terrifying nightmare for a lot of families and especially for those who are living in makeshift camps”, said Khoudary.

The lack of supplies has prompted the UN to warn that the hunger crisis in Gaza remains catastrophic, particularly in the north, where famine was declared in August, due to the slow and difficult route aid convoys face from the south.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid and commercial cargo resumed passage through the northern Zikim border crossing earlier this week.

Israel had closed the crossing, the main entry point into the hard-hit northern Gaza Strip, for two months, with its reopening welcomed by Palestinians and UN aid agencies.

Palestinian truck driver Abdulkarim Abu Daqqa said on Thursday that they had loaded approximately 80 trucks and hoped that the crossings would continue the following day to alleviate Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.

A spokesperson for COGAT, the Israeli Defence Ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory, told the AFP news agency that the crossing would remain open permanently.

Exchange of bodies

The October ceasefire also provided for the release of captives and prisoners held by Israel and Hamas.

Israel on Thursday received the body of one of the last four captives held by Hamas from the Red Cross, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.

The coffin was handed over in the Gaza Strip to the Israeli army and Shin Bet security service, the office said.

It later said forensic experts had confirmed the body was that of Israeli captive Meny Godard, 73, who was killed in the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on southern Israel.

Hamas said the body was found in Khan Younis in the south of the territory.

The search for the remaining three bodies is going to be “complicated” and “will take time”, said Khoudary.

According to an announcement by Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, they require “more tools, more equipment … more technicians” as the location where the bodies are located is “very unreachable”, Khoudary added.

The remaining bodies are located beyond the so-called Yellow Line, according to Khoudary, which are “dangerous areas”.

The Yellow Line is a boundary dividing the Gaza Strip into Israeli-occupied and Hamas-controlled zones, established as part of the October ceasefire. Israel has been routinely firing at and killing Palestinians venturing to check on the ruins of their homes in areas it controls in recent weeks.

Palestinians are eagerly waiting for the three remaining bodies to be handed over to the Israeli authorities, “because their lives are on hold. Palestinians want reconstruction, they want to know from where they could start their lives all over,” said Khoudary. “There are a lot of Palestinians who need medical evacuations, and these won’t happen until the three bodies” have been delivered to Israel via the Red Cross.

At the start of the truce, Hamas held 20 living captives and 28 bodies of the deceased.

In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds of deceased Palestinians.

Gaza’s health officials have said many of the returned bodies showed signs of torture, mutilation and execution.

Gaza health officials said on Friday they had received the bodies of 15 Palestinians returned by Israel. Their remains were delivered to Nasser Medical Complex, according to an media correspondent. This brings the total number of bodies recovered through the deal to 330.

“Identifying these bodies [of Palestinians] has been very challenging,” said Khoudary.

Only a small number of them have managed to be identified, said Khoudary, as they have “decomposed, [been] disfigured”. As a result, “it’s very hard for families to identify who these Palestinians are, so that’s why most of those Palestinians are buried without identification in one of the mass graves in Deir el-Balah.”