The controversy surrounding UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, some employees of which are accused by Israel of being involved in the massacres of October 7, “distracts attention” from the humanitarian crisis and the nearly 27,000 dead in Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) deplored Tuesday.
“Criminal activities must never go unpunished. But the current discussion only distracts from what is really happening every day, every hour, every minute in Gaza,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told a news briefing. regular in Geneva.
“Let’s not forget what the real problems are on the ground,” he added.
A dozen countries have announced that they are suspending their funding to UNRWA after Israeli accusations, threatening its aid operations to the civilian population of Gaza, devastated by nearly four months of war and in the grip of a serious humanitarian crisis.
Mr. Lindmeier recalled that WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had called on donors “not to suspend their funding to UNRWA at this very critical time” because this “will only harm the people of Gaza which desperately needs help.”
The WHO spokesperson deplored that this discussion on UNRWA, “as important as it is, distracts attention from the nearly 27,000 deaths, 70% of them women and children”, in Gaza.
“It distracts from the fact that an entire population is being prevented from having access to clean water, to food, to shelter. This distracts from the fact that electricity has been blocked from reaching Gaza for over 100 days,” Lindmeier said.
“It also distracts from the fact that an entire population is being subjected to continuous bombardment, even in areas that moments before had been designated safe,” he continued.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel which killed around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures.
Some 250 people were kidnapped during the attack, including around a hundred released at the end of November during a truce. 132 hostages remain detained, including 28 presumed dead according to Israel.
In response, the State of Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, and launched a vast military operation which left 26,637 dead and more than 50,000 injured, largely majority of civilians, according to the Palestinian movement’s Ministry of Health.
Israel has accused 12 of UNRWA’s 30,000 regional employees of involvement in the Hamas attack on October 7.