The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed on Sunday its concern about some countries halting their aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The Turkish Foreign Ministry explained in a statement that UNRWA meets the vital needs of millions of Palestinian refugees under very difficult circumstances.
The statement added that more than 150 UNRWA employees have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 7.
He pointed out that stopping (some countries) providing aid to UNRWA due to some allegations that affected a small number of members of this organization would harm “the Palestinian people in the first place.”
The Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed its hope that the countries that announced the cessation of aid to UNRWA would reconsider their decision.
Since Friday, the United States, Canada, Australia, Italy, Britain, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands have “temporarily” suspended funding for the UN agency following Israeli allegations that 12 of its employees participated in the Hamas attack on October 7.
The Israeli accusations affected 12 employees out of more than 30,000 male and female employees, most of whom are Palestinian refugees themselves working for UNRWA, in addition to a small number of international employees.
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These accusations are not the first of their kind. Since the beginning of the war on Gaza, Israel has accused UNRWA employees of working for Hamas.
This was considered a “pre-justification” for attacking the institution’s schools and facilities in the Gaza Strip, which houses tens of thousands of displaced people, most of whom are children and women, according to observers.
The Western announcements came hours after the International Court of Justice in The Hague announced its rejection of Israel’s demands to drop the “genocide” lawsuit in Gaza.
Which was filed against it by South Africa and it temporarily ruled to oblige Tel Aviv “to take measures to stop the genocide and bring in humanitarian aid.” UNRWA said on Friday that it had opened an investigation into allegations of the involvement of a number (without specifying) of its employees in the October 7 attacks.
UNRWA was established by a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly in 1949, and was authorized to provide assistance and protection to refugees in its five areas of operations:
Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, until a just solution to their problem is reached.
On October 7, Hamas launched an attack on Israeli military points and settlements around the Gaza Strip, during which it killed about 1,200 Israelis.
It wounded about 5,431 and captured at least 239, exchanging dozens of them with Israel during a temporary humanitarian truce that lasted 7 days and ended in early December 2023.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that, as of Sunday, has left 26,422 martyrs and 65,87 injured, most of them children and women, according to the Palestinian authorities, and has caused “massive destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to the United Nations.
