Germany says it will start supporting Palestinian UN agency again

Germany said it will work with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees again. This means they will start giving money again after they stopped because of accusations against UNRWA staff.

The claims caused 16 countries that give money, including the biggest one, the United States, to stop giving about $450 million to UNRWA. This hurts UNRWA’s ability to help with the crisis in Gaza caused by Israel’s attack.

Former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna led a review into UNRWA’s rules for staying neutral. The review was published on Monday.

The German foreign and development ministries want UNRWA to quickly follow the report’s suggestions. This includes making its internal audit function stronger and improving oversight of project management.

“The German government will keep working with UNRWA in Gaza, just like Australia, Canada, Sweden, and Japan are already doing,” the statement said. Germany is the second largest giver to UNRWA.

The organization has 32,000 workers in the Palestinian areas and nearby countries. This includes 13,000 in the Gaza Strip. It is the largest aid agency there and provides schools and social services to the refugees who are the majority of the people in Gaza.

UNRWA’s communication director Juliette Touma said that they are very thankful. She also said that Germany has been a strong supporter of the agency.

The review said Israel hasn’t shown proof to support their claims that many UNRWA staff in Gaza are part of terrorist groups.

The review showed that UNRWA is better at staying neutral compared to other groups, but there are still some problems with staff sharing their political opinions publicly.

The United Nations is looking into claims against 12 of its workers. After these came out in January, UNRWA said it had fired 10 of the people mentioned, and the other two had passed away.

In March, Israel said that more than 450 UNRWA workers in Gaza were members of terrorist groups.

Israel’s spokesperson from the Foreign Ministry said it was sad and not good that Germany made this decision. Israel gave lots of information about hundreds of UNRWA workers who are part of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to Germany.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wants all countries to help UNRWA because it’s really important for Palestine refugees in the region.

The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said on Tuesday that UNRWA has enough money to cover its operations until June.