UN offers assistance after employees accused of attacking Israel

The leader of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has called on countries that have ceased funding to reconsider their “unexpected” actions.

More than two million people in the Gaza Strip rely on it to survive, according to Philippe Lazzarini.

Eight countries, including the UK, took action because Israel said some UNRWA staff were involved in the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October.

The agency is looking into it and has already fired those workers.

Israel has been saying for a long time that some parts of the UN, like UNRWA, are not fair and may even be against Jewish people.

Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US have stopped giving money to UNRWA.

Established in 1949, UNRWA is the largest United Nations agency working in Gaza. It gives medical care, schooling, and other help to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. It gives jobs to about 13,000 people in Gaza.

Since Israel started fighting back against Hamas, UNRWA has been using its buildings in Gaza to protect many people who had to leave their homes.

On Saturday, Mr. Lazzarini said it was surprising that funds were stopped because of allegations against a few staff members. UNRWA took quick action by firing them and asking for an independent investigation.

“It would be very wrong to punish an agency and a whole community because of allegations of crimes by some people, especially during a war, when people are being forced to leave their homes, and there are political problems in the area. ”

“UNRWA gives a list of all its workers to the countries they work in every year, even Israel. ” The agency did not get any complaints about particular staff members.

Mr Lazzarini said that a UN office is going to look into the terrible accusations and find out what really happened.

An adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the media on Friday that the Hamas attacks on 7 October involved people who are getting paid by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Mark Regev said they had evidence that teachers at UNRWA schools had openly rejoiced about the attacks. Hamas fighters killed about 1,300 people, mostly innocent civilians, and took 250 more as hostages.

Mr Regev also mentioned an Israeli hostage who said she was kept in the home of someone who worked for UNRWA after she was released.

“They have a group that is controlled by Hamas and I think it’s about time for the UN to look into the connections between UNRWA and Hamas,” he said.

The claims made the big donors react.

The UK government is very upset that UNRWA staff may have been part of the attack on Israel on 7 October. They have condemned this terrorist act many times.

“The UK is stopping giving money to UNRWA for now while we look into these worrying claims,” they said.

Before, the US government said it would stop giving more money to the UN agency because it was really worried about the accusations.

The EU will decide what to do next after looking at the results of the investigation.

The US, Germany, and EU give a lot of money to UNRWA.

The UN leader, António Guterres, said he was very shocked by this news.

Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, wants to shut down UNRWA’s operations in Gaza after the war.

However, the Palestinian Authority’s minister for civilian affairs, Hussein Al-Sheikh, said that countries stopping support for the important UN agency could cause significant political and humanitarian problems.

The attacks on October 7th caused Israel to strike back hard on Hamas in Gaza. They used airstrikes and shelling that resulted in the deaths of over 26,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry run by Hamas in that area.

UNRWA is having a hard time getting help to many of the 1. 7 million people who had to leave their homes because of 12 weeks of fighting.