A United Nations spokeswoman revealed some of the preliminary findings reached by a committee charged with assessing the “neutrality” of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees ( UNRWA ), which is being subjected to a campaign by the Israeli occupation, while the US Congress is preparing to issue legislation to prevent funding the agency.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres assigned the committee to investigate UNRWA and its “neutrality,” headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, finished writing its initial report but did not publish it. The final report is expected to be issued and published by April 20.
On Wednesday, Florencia Soto Nino, Guterres’ spokeswoman, said that the initial report showed that UNRWA is implementing “a large number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure respect for the principle of humanitarian neutrality.”
But she added, “The committee also identified sensitive areas that still must be dealt with,” without giving details. UNRWA has been under Western pressure since Israel accused 12 of the agency’s 30,000 employees of participating in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7th.
After these Israeli accusations, about 15 countries, led by the United States, the primary donor to UNRWA, announced the suspension of their funding for the agency, despite United Nations warnings that there is no alternative to carry out the agency’s work, especially with the escalating warnings of famine in Gaza.
On the other hand, researchers today reported from documents it had seen that UNRWA agreed to hand over a list of its employees to the Israeli authorities every three months.
At the same time, lawmakers in the US Congress agreed with the White House on a draft law that includes massive government funding for the army and other bodies and continues to withhold financing from UNRWA until March 2025, according to what the researchers and Reuters reported from informed sources.
This legislation will lead to a deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars in the UNRWA budget, with disastrous repercussions for the residents of Gaza.
Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip for more than five months, leaving tens of thousands of civilians martyred and wounded, most of them children and women, in addition to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and massive destruction of infrastructure, which led to Tel Aviv being brought before the International Court of Justice on charges of genocide.
Israel restricts access to humanitarian aid to Gaza, causing a scarcity of supplies of food, water, medicine, and fuel and leading to the death of children and the elderly from hunger in light of the presence of about two million displaced people in the Strip, which has been under siege for 17 years.
An independent report prepared for the United Nations by French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna is due to be published at midday in New York (5pm British time). He described the report, which was requested by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, as brief and straightforward. Its recommendations aim to increase the transparency and accountability of the United Nations.
