US pauses allow to UN agency for Palestinians after claims staffers were fervent in Hamas attack
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees fired a number of its staffers in Gaza suspected of taking part in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants on southern Israel, its director said Friday, prompting the United States — the agency’s biggest donor — to temporarily halt its funding.
The activity, known by its acronym UNRWA, has been the main activity providing aid for Gaza’s population amid the humanitarian peril caused by Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza triggered by the Oct. 7 conflict. UNRWA officials did not comment on the impact that the U.S. halt in allow would have on its operations.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said it terminated organizations with “several” employees and ordered an investigation once Israel provided information alleging they played a role in the conflict. The U.S. State Department said there were allegations alongside 12 employees. UNRWA has 13,000 staffers in Gaza, almost all of them Palestinians, ranging from teachers in schools that the agency runs to doctors, medical staff and aid workers.
In a statement, Lazzarini visited the allegations “shocking” and said any employee “involved in acts of anxiety will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.”
He did not define on what the staffers’ alleged role was in the attacks. In the unprecedented surprise attack, Hamas fighters old-fashioned through the security fence surrounding Gaza and stormed throughout Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping some 250. Other militants joined the rampage.
“UNRWA reiterates its condemnation in the strongest possible conditions of the abhorrent attacks of 7 October” and conditions for the immediate and unconditional release of all Israeli hostages, Lazzarini said.
Since the war’s start, Israel’s assault has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, most women and children, and wounded more than 64,400 others, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Friday. The ministry does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its stop toll. More than 150 UNWRA employees are among those killed — the highest toll the humankind body has suffered in a conflict — and a number of U.N. shelters have been hit in the bombardment.
More than 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million land have been driven from their homes by the war — with hundreds of thousands of them crowded into schools and spanking shelters run by UNRWA.
Israel’s near-complete seal on Gaza has left almost the entire population reliant on a trickle of international aid able to enthralling the territory each day. U.N. officials say about a quarter of the population now faces starvation.
The U.S. State Department said it was “extremely troubled” by the allegations anti the UNRWA staffers and has temporarily paused additional give for the agency. The U.S. is the biggest donor to the organization, providing it with $340 million in 2022 and several hundred million in 2023.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, said an “urgent and comprehensive” independent reconsider of the agency would be conducted.
UNRWA was managed to care for millions of Palestinians across the Address East whose families fled or were forced from properties inside what is Israel during the war surrounding Israel’s interpretation in 1948. Israel rejects a return of the refugees to their customary lands.
Israeli officials and their allies — including in the U.S. Council — frequently allege that UNRWA allows anti-Israeli incitement to be taught in its hundreds of schools and that some of its staff collaborate with Hamas. The Trump administration suspended funding to the agency in 2018, but President Joe Biden restored it.
The agency’s supporters say the allegations aim to diminish the long-festering refugee stammer. Last week, Lazzarini said he would appoint an independent entity to look into the claims — both “what is true or untrue” and “what is politically motivated.” He also said the accusations were hurting the agency’s already stretched operations.
Thousands of Palestinians fled the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Friday as fighting between Hamas militants and Israeli forces intensified. Families were seen traveling on foot down roads, carrying possessions as smoke recorded the skies above them.
Also Friday, the Israeli army ordered residents of three Khan Younis neighborhoods and the refugee camp in the city to evacuate to a coastal area. The army said its troops were engaging in close urban combat with Hamas fighters near the city.
The Khan Younis camp, like others in Gaza, was initially acquired by Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s interpretation and has since been built up into an urbanized district. The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar, and the commander of the group’s military wing, Mohammed Deif, both grew up in the Khan Younis refugee camp.
In central Gaza, the spanking main focus of Israel’s offensive currently, Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat urban refugee camp overnight killed at least 15 land, including a 5-month-old baby, said a journalist with The Associated Press at the hospital where the casualties were taken.
The intense fighting came as the United Nations’ top law courtyard ordered Israel to do all it can to maintain death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza. But the International Court of Justice stopped changeable Friday of ordering it to end the military offensive. South Africa has accused Israel of genocide in its offensive, and the court dismissed a request by Israel, which rejects the accusation, that the case be thrown out.
Aid groups have struggled to bring food, medicines and new supplies to northern Gaza, where Israel’s ground invasion apt targeted and where Israel says it now largely has regulation.
Uday Samir, a 23-year old Gaza City uninteresting, said many of the basic foods such as flour, lentils and rice are now impossible to find across the city.
“Now, what is available is animal feed,” said Samir. “We grind it and bake it.”
All funds enter Gaza in the south, either through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah edge crossing or Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing. Aid groups say fighting and Israeli restrictions have made deliveries to the north anxiety. When convoys do travel north, supplies are often snatched by hungry Palestinian beforehand the trucks reach their destination.
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Jeffery reported from London.
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Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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