More than half of the countries in United Nations (118 in total) joined this Friday the initiative to support the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), attacked by Israel for his alleged collusion with the Islamist group Hamas.
Shortly before the start of the Donors Conference within the HIM Slovenian Foreign Minister, Tanja Fajon appeared at the door of the Security Council together with tens of ambassadors and encouraged other countries to sign this initiative at any time to support the UNRWA “in these urgent and difficult times.”
The UNRWA which before the war provided tasks related to education, health and other social services to two-thirds of Palestinians in Gaza entered into a serious crisis last January, when Israel accused twelve of its members of participating in the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7; as a result, major donors froze their financing.
In the following months, the rhetoric of Israel against the Palestinian agency was increasing: he went so far as to say that it employed “450 terrorists” in Gaza or that 17% of its 30,000 employees were actually members of Hamas.
In the absence of that Israel show proof of their accusations, most countries have gone resuming its financing But not like that USA who even voted in the Congress to suspend all funding contributions until at least March 2025.
The Secretary General of the HIM, Antonio Guterres -also in the sights of Israel for his alleged pro-Palestinian bias – paid tribute at the opening of the conference to “the men and women of UNRWA who bravely continue their work as best they can, under impossible conditions and in the midst of their own grief.”
Because -he remembered Guterres– 195 members of UNRWA have died victims of the bombings Israel“the largest number of dead personnel in the history of the HIM”, but also those who continue working “are the target of increasingly violent and virulent protests disinformation campaigns”.
Guterres made it clear, as he has done so many times, that the HIM “It is the backbone of humanitarian operations in Gaza”and “without the necessary support and funding to the UNRWA Palestinian refugees lose a critical lifeline and the last ray of hope for a better future.”