United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres defended the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Jordan on Monday, describing it as a “source of hope and dignity”.
During a visit to Al-Wihdat, a Palestinian refugee camp in eastern Jordan’s capital Amman, Guterres said it would be “cruel and incomprehensible” to disrupt UNRWA services. to Palestinian refugees across the region.
This statement follows the announcement by the UN agency that Israel has formally prohibited any delivery of food aid to the north of the Gaza Strip.
In January, Israel accused 12 of the 13,000 UNRWA employees in the Gaza Strip of involvement in the attack carried out by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, which sparked the war in the Palestinian territory. .
UNRWA, which employs some 30,000 people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as well as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, has parted ways with the employees involved.
But around fifteen countries, notably the United States, suspended their funding at the end of January after the Israeli accusations, which put the agency in financial difficulty, although several of them have since resumed their payments.
“Here in Jordan, but also in Syria, Lebanon and, of course, the occupied West Bank and Gaza, UNRWA is a source of hope and dignity,” said the UN Secretary-General.
Some 5.9 million Palestinian refugees are registered with the UN agency in the region.
“We must strive to maintain the unique services provided by UNRWA […] In an increasingly dark world, UNRWA is the only beacon of hope for millions of people. I see that hope here. Today more than ever, we must not lose this hope,” Mr. Guterres insisted.
He also wanted to “pay tribute to the 171 UNRWA women and men killed in Gaza — the highest number of deaths among UN personnel in our history.”
The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered on October 7 by the unprecedented Hamas attack in southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,160 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count established from official Israeli data.
In retaliation, Israel is carrying out a military offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory, which has already left more than 32,200 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.