Israel has given the UN a proposal to dismantle Unrwa, its relief agency in the Palestinian territories, and transfer its staff to a replacement agency to make large-scale food deliveries into Gaza, according to UN sources.
Unrwa was not involved in the talks as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been refusing to deal with it since last Monday, on the basis of claims, so far unproven, of affiliations of some of the agency’s staff with Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
Some UN officials see the Israeli plan as an attempt to portray the UN as unwilling to cooperate if there is famine in Gaza, which humanitarian organisations have warned is impending. On Thursday the international court of justice, which is examining genocide charges against Israel, ordered the Israeli government to take “all necessary and effective measures” to ensure the large-scale delivery of aid to Gaza “in full cooperation with the United Nations”.
“If we allow this, it is the slippery slope to us being completely managed directly by the Israelis, and the UN directly being complicit in undermining Unrwa, which is not only the biggest aid provider but also the biggest bastion of anti-extremism in Gaza,” one UN official said. “We would be playing into so many political agendas if we allowed this to happen.”
Behind the scenes at the UN, the US has supported the Israeli effort to fold Unrwa’s functions into other agencies, but diplomats in New York said that effort had so far been resisted by other donors and Guterres, who until now has given his full support to Unrwa.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Unrwa was not involved in the talks as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been refusing to deal with it since last Monday, on the basis of claims, so far unproven, of affiliations of some of the agency’s staff with Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
On Thursday the international court of justice, which is examining genocide charges against Israel, ordered the Israeli government to take “all necessary and effective measures” to ensure the large-scale delivery of aid to Gaza “in full cooperation with the United Nations”.
Unrwa is by far the biggest aid organisation in Gaza, employing 13,000 staff at the time the war broke out, 3,000 of whom are still doing their jobs, as well as tens of thousands more across the West Bank and elsewhere in the Middle East.
In addition to distributing food, the agency is a major employer in Gaza, providing teaching and essential medical services as healthcare in the enclave crumbles.
Earlier this month, the US Congress voted for a spending bill that included a clause blocking future US financing of Unrwa, but other national donors have resumed their funding in the weeks since the UN launched two inquiries.
An interim report by the Colonna inquiry on 20 March said Unrwa had a “significant number of mechanisms and procedures” to ensure its neutrality but that critical areas still needed to be addressed.
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