Due to fear of attack on Rafah, Israel increased atrocities on UNRWA. international

Just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told security forces to make plans to evacuate more than half of Gaza’s population ahead of a US invasion – thousands of them in tents. On land in the Rafah area, a ship is anchored waiting to be unloaded in the Israeli port of Ashdod with more than 1,000 containers of humanitarian aid for the strip. It’s about ha…

Just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told security forces to make plans to evacuate more than half of Gaza’s population ahead of a US invasion – thousands of them in tents. On land in the Rafah area, a ship is anchored waiting to be unloaded in the Israeli port of Ashdod with more than 1,000 containers of humanitarian aid for the strip. These are flour, chickpeas, rice, sugar and cooking oil, among other products, donated by Turkey to the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to feed 1.1 of the 2.3 million Gazans for a month. Is. This Thursday, the Israeli contractor in charge of managing the logistics and paperwork necessary to put it on trucks and transport it to the border has informed UNRWA that it has received instructions not to do so, the agency’s head Philippe said this Friday. said Lazarini, in a meeting with a group of journalists at the headquarters in Jerusalem. As a result, UNRWA diverted another humanitarian ship that was scheduled to take Ashdod to Port Said, Egypt.

It came on the same day that the finance minister, far-right Bezalel Smotrich, tweeted: “The State of Israel will not give tax benefits to those who cooperate with terrorism.” This follows the news that it has given instructions to withdraw the benefits they receive as a UN agency: exemption from customs duties and import duties for products linked to their operations, as well as VAT on imports. Its employees also pay very little tax when filling up with gasoline. According to information tweeted on Israeli public television, Smotrich intends to sign the orders in the coming days. Leumi, an Israeli bank, has closed UNRWA’s account. Lazzarini assured that he would know about the measures from the press.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu once again mentioned the agency in his address to the nation. Last week she said she had been “completely infiltrated” by Hamas. This time, he will play no role in the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave: “We would welcome the participation of moderate Arab states in building a different and better future for Gaza. It would also require UNRWA, which perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem, teaches genocide and terrorism to Palestinian children in its schools, and from whose ranks has emerged a dozen murderous terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre. should be replaced by responsible aid agencies. ” The organization provides education, primary health care, help buying food and clothing, and microcredit to the 1.5 million refugees in Gaza and another 4.4 million refugees in Jordan, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria. The agency receives its mission from the United Nations General Assembly, which renews it annually.

These are the latest examples of increased harassment of UNRWA since January 18, when the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s deputy director-general, Amir Weisbrod, exposed allegations to Lazzarini – contained in a report in Hebrew that he did not provide – that 12 13,000 Palestinian UNRWA workers in Gaza participated in the Hamas offensive on 7 October. According to the American newspaper, one kidnapped a woman, another participated in a massacre in a kibbutz and a third supplied ammunition to militiamen. the new York Times. document, The report prepared by Israeli intelligence services also shows that 10% of the local employees have some kind of connection to Hamas or Islamic Jihad. For Defense Minister Yoav Galant, UNRWA had lost “the legitimacy of its existence” at that time.

After the meeting Lazzarini met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. On January 26, it announced the dismissal of nine of the 12 named workers. Today he admits that he acted “contrary to a fair trial”, which is based on the adage that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but clarifies that he took into account the “enormous risk to UNRWA’s reputation”. placed., the seriousness of the allegations, the certainty that information was going to come to light somehow and, above all, the importance of “preserving the ability to continue operations and provide vital humanitarian assistance”, at a time when its most There was more need. That is, with the threat of famine in northern Gaza, where Israel has not allowed the arrival of humanitarian aid since January 23 (the navy bombed a convoy last week, which had to turn back). And with the humanitarian crisis in Rafah, where 19,600 people per square kilometer eat less than they need, it is cold and Israel has increased bombing.

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In some examples, the announcement of layoffs and the leaking of reports led to a flurry of announcements of funding cuts. UNRWA depends basically on voluntary contributions of States. Nothing obliges them to fulfill them, or to comply with the promised amount. Sixteen countries halted their contributions, including the two main donors: the United States and Germany. UNRWA has lost half its budget. Some countries, such as Spain and Norway, have increased these, but they are far from filling the hole. Last week, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eid was “quite optimistic” that some donors would reverse their decision. Lazzarini, who is coming from a visit to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, is “cautiously optimistic” that the Gulf countries will move forward, as was the case in the 2018 crisis, when the then-President of the United States, Donald Trump, Turned off the tap.

The dispute has reached Brussels. Last week, at a meeting of foreign ministers, Neighborhood and Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi caused concern and outrage among some member states by suggesting that he was looking for alternatives to EU aid, according to multiple sources. . He was in the meeting. According to the same sources, one option Varhelyi raised is to give it to Egypt or other humanitarian organizations and let them take care of the purchase and distribution. Several countries, including Spain, told the Commissioner that it was not his job to determine the matter and expressed their disagreement, which has caused some tension even within the College of Commissioners, according to community sources.

Varaheli, who had previously generated controversy for delaying aid to the Palestinians (such as allocations for the treatment of cancer patients in 2022), announced on social media in October, just after the Hamas attack, that he would end all aid from the EU. are being suspended. Among the Palestinians, when there were no planned disbursements from those his team controls – for example cooperation projects – and humanitarian aid goes through other channels. Many stakeholders rejected the Commissioner and the Community Executive had to publicly back down and clarify that suspension was not on the table and that the Commissioner had acted unilaterally and spoken out.

At the beginning of the announcements of the funding freeze, the European Commission stated that it had no plans to do so. Furthermore, no payments are planned until the end of the month, when the case will be re-analyzed “in the light of the investigation announced by the United Nations.” The EU is the largest donor of humanitarian and development assistance to Gaza, mainly channeled through UNRWA, to which it has contributed approximately €281 million for the period 2021–2023.

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UNRWA has been in Israel’s sights for years. Some representatives and organizations have made its condemnation an important focus of their activities. They are often accused of colluding with the Hamas government in Gaza, teaching hatred in schools, and perpetuating the refugee problem. It was created after the Nakba, the flight or expulsion from the territory of the State of Israel of two-thirds of the Palestinians, who were just born, and their descendants received refugee status.

However, the campaign has gone up several notches since the layoffs. Foreign Minister Israel Katz has called on Lazzarini to resign and is no longer welcome in the ministry. Netanyahu informed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that he had started the post-war process without UNRWA. At his press conference in Tel Aviv, Blinken said vaguely: “We know that the work, the work done by UNRWA, must be protected because the lives of many people depend on it.”

Last Monday, in addition, about 200 people demonstrated in front of the UNRWA headquarters in Jerusalem with banners such as “Let’s drive the enemy out of Jerusalem” or “Jerusalem will not be Gaza”. “Why should we give him water? Electricity? (…) They are not from the United Nations, they are from Hamas!”, the city’s deputy mayor, Aryeh King, told the newspaper at the protest. israel time,

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