Borrell warns against UNRWA fund cuts amid Gaza 'catastrophic hunger'

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
5 Feb 2024 01:41

The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says defunding the UN Palestinian refugee agency would put hundreds of thousands of lives at risk.

High Representative of the Union for Josep Borrell Fontelles addresses the press as he arrives to attend a European Council meeting at the European headquarters in Brussels, on February 1, 2024. (Photo by JOHN THYS / AFP)

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned on Sunday that moves to suspend the funding of UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA were extremely ill-advised.

"Defunding UNRWA would be both disproportionate and dangerous," Borrell underlined amid accusations of the Israeli occupation that 12 of the agency's employees took part in the Palestinian Resistance's Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7.

"While some important donors suspended funding, there is a wide recognition that UNRWA is central to providing vital aid to more than 1.1 million people in Gaza suffering from catastrophic hunger and the outbreak of diseases."

"Defunding the agency would put hundreds of thousands of lives at risk," Borrell stressed.

He added in a blog article that "the agency has taken immediate steps and launched an investigation," calling the allegations serious and which should not go unpunished if true.

His comments come with more than a dozen countries, including major donors the United States, Germany, Britain and Sweden, having suspended funding to UNRWA over the Israeli accusations.

The agency -- which has received a Norwegian nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize -- has warned it will have to cease operations by the end of the month should funding be significantly pulled.

The UN has announced an audit into UNRWA's operations saying that it would determine whether the body should be suspended based on the investigation results.

Borrell said he was convinced the inquiry would be completed before the launch of an independent external investigation ahead of the next payment from the European Commission due at month's end.

He noted that suspended total funds currently amount to "more than $440 million, or around half the agency's expected funds for 2024," warning that such a shortfall called into danger the agency's very existence.

Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed last week that UNRWA had been "totally infiltrated" by the Palestinian Resistance group Hamas.