UNITED NATIONS: No organisation can “replace or substitute” the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency, the UN’s coordinator for Gaza aid said on Tuesday.

Several countries, including the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan, have suspended funding to the agency, and the senior official’s intervention came as the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres prepared to meet donor countries.

“There is no way that any organisation can replace or substitute (the) tremendous capacity, the fabric of UNRWA — (their) ability and their knowledge of the population in Gaza,” said the recently appointed coordinator, Sigrid Kaag, referring to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

UNRWA said it has acted promptly over allegations by Israel that 12 of its staff were involved in the Hamas raid and that cuts in funding will affect ordinary Palestinians.

The UN agency has long been under scrutiny by Israel, which accuses it of systematically going against the country’s interests.

Israel has vowed to stop the agency’s work in Gaza after the war.

UNRWA ‘distraction’

Fears have grown that the Middle East could face a wider conflict, after months of violence involving allies of Hamas in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, who have also targeted US forces.

The war has left much of Gaza in ruins and sparked a spiralling humanitarian crisis for its 2.4 million people, many of whom face the threats of hunger and disease. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who has pleaded for continued support to meet the “dire needs”, held talks with donors, his office said, as investigations into Israel’s claims continue.

The World Health Organisation called the row over UNRWA “a distraction from what’s really going on every day, every hour, every minute in Gaza”.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2024