Qatar and Spain will continue to support UNRWA to address the tragic situation in Gaza

The Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohamed bin Abdelrahman, stated this Monday that his country will continue to support the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) to address the tragic situation in the Gaza Strip.

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In a meeting with UNRWA Commissioner General in Doha, Philippe Lazzarini, Abdelrahman warned of the “catastrophic repercussions” of the suspension by several countries of funding to the agency following accusations against some of its employees of participating in the multiple attack. of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas against Israel, on October 7.

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“The State of Qatar will continue to support the agency whose responsibilities have doubled in the face of the current tragic situation that the innocent civilian inhabitants of the Gaza Strip are going through,” said Abdelrahman, also the foreign minister of his country, according to a statement from that department. .

He called for “a separation between the fact that UNRWA is one of the United Nations institutions, which enjoys values ​​and traditions, and the allegations against some of its employees who are under investigation.”

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For his part, Lazzarini appreciated Qatar's “generous and continuous support for the UNRWA program, which contributes to the response to the urgent humanitarian needs of the Palestinian brothers,” added the Qatari Foreign Affairs note.

Qatar, one of the world's largest gas exporters, is a key mediator in efforts to reach a truce in Gaza and is known for its support for the Palestinians and hosts the political office of Hamas in Doha.

Lazzarini's visit to Doha follows his recent warnings that UNRWA will be forced to suspend operations in Gaza and across the Middle East if funding to the organization is not resumed, after 16 donor countries froze their financial contributions.

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In addition to the Gaza Strip, the organization provides assistance to the millions of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy and Australia announced that they were suspending the financing they give to the United Nations agency.which opened an internal investigation to determine whether twelve of its members collaborated in the attack that Hamas launched on Israel on October 7 of last year with more than 1,200 dead and nearly 250 hostages who were taken to Gaza.

Spain will mobilize 3.5 million euros

Spain will continue to support the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, and will mobilize an urgent allocation of 3.5 million euros to maintain its activities in the short term, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel assured this Monday. Albares.

(You can read: UNRWA is the 'backbone' of humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to UN chief)

“We are not going to modify our collaboration with UNRWA, it is an indispensable organization,” Albares stressed before a commission of the Spanish Parliament, in which he argued the importance of continuing to support the agency despite accusations of collaboration with the Islamist group Hamas.

“The situation of UNRWA is desperate and there is a serious risk that its humanitarian activities in Gaza will be paralyzed in a few weeks,” said the minister in relation to the freezing of funds for the agency announced by most donor countries.

Albares stated that Last week he reported his decision to urgently contribute 3.5 million to the Commissioner General of UNRWA, Philip Lazarini..

In addition, he recalled that the organization has about 30,000 workers and only a dozen have been accused of collaboration with Hamas, which serves almost six million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon and that all of them would be affected by a paralysis of UNRWA due to lack of funds.

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In this regard, he asked not to add more suffering to the more than one million Gazans who depend every day on the help of this agency to be able to eat and defended that a European Union report concludes that not a single euro in cooperation funds is diverted to other purposes..

“It is an issue of pure humanity,” he stressed, after pointing out that the Palestinian National Authority, which controls parts of the West Bank, is “a good partner,” while Hamas, which has the Gaza Strip under its control, is a terrorist group. .

EFE