Gaza | Irresponsible, says the EU's Borrell about ending UNRWA support

of the UN Cutting off aid to UNRWA, the aid organization for Palestinian refugees, is extremely ill-advised and dangerous, EU foreign policy official Josep Borrell says.

Several countries, including Finland, have suspended their funding to UNRWA after Israel claimed that at least 12 UNRWA workers participated in an attack by the extremist organization Hamas in Israel on October 7. The United States, Great Britain, Germany, and Sweden are among those suspending funding.

The UN has announced that Israel's claims will be investigated and possible culprits will be punished.

UNRWA has warned that its operations in the region may end by the end of February if international financial aid is significantly reduced. Several UN organizations have already said that the cessation of aid to the Palestinians still in Gaza will have catastrophic consequences.

“Although some major donors have suspended their funding, it is widely recognized that UNRWA is central to providing vital aid to more than 1.1 million people in Gaza,” Borrell thundered, recalling that people in the region are in acute famine and suffering from spreading diseases.

“Stopping the organization's funding would endanger the lives of hundreds of thousands of people,” Borrell continued.

Borrell said he was confident that investigations into the allegations against the organization would be completed before the European Commission's next aid package is due to go ahead at the end of February.

According to Borrell, the total value of the financial contributions frozen from UNRWA so far is more than 440 million dollars. This accounts for about half of the organization's funding for the current year. Borrell repeated UNRWA's message that the entire organization's existence is at stake.

The UN has stated that the continuation of the organization's activities will be evaluated as a whole after Israel's claims have been thoroughly investigated.