Jordan to be hit hard if UNRWA funding does not resume - agency

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 Jordan's already struggling economy will face even tougher times if several donors continue to suspend funding for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees and its services have to be shut or reduced as a result, UNRWA's country head said on Tuesday.

Israeli forces operate in the Gaza Strip.

"The current funding suspension is putting the continuation of these services at risk after the end of February. It will have severe consequences (on UNRWA's operations)," said Olaf Becker, Jordan director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.

UNRWA, which provides healthcare, education and other services, has been pitched into crisis since Israel alleged that 12 of its 13,000 staff in Gaza were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel that precipitated the Israel-Hamas war. The allegations prompted major donors to suspend funding.

Jordan, which lies at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict, hosts 2.4 million Palestinian refugees, the largest number of such refugees among Israel's neighbours. Many of its citizens are of Palestinian origin.

Jordan already provides $1 billion in infrastructure and other services to 10 Palestinian camps across the country, where the agency runs schools and health services for nearly 400,000 inhabitants, Becker said.

UNRWA was already helping the economy with 7,000 employees on its payroll, making it one of the largest employers in the kingdom, injecting over $120 million in salaries into the economy annually, Becker said.

Its services support over one million Palestinian refugees in the kingdom with, on average, 20% lower cost than the state in providing comparable services, Becker added.

"Our first option would be scale down our services and it might take different modalities but it's very difficult -- what do you choose, health care versus education or sanitation?" he said.

"School children might not have anywhere to go... It will be very detrimental to social cohesion in Jordan," Becker said.

Jordan, a staunch U.S. ally, says it is crucial to continue to empower UNRWA, established in 1949 under a U.N. mandate in the wake of the first Arab-Israeli war.

Jordan's King Abdullah, speaking on Monday on a visit to the White House, said UNRWA's work in Jordan was "vital" and it was imperative it receive support to continue its mandate.

Sheri Ritsema-Anderson, U.N. Resident Coordinator in Jordan, said no other U.N. agency could step into UNRWA's role at short notice and within its cost structure.

Jordanian officials say any attempt to dismantle UNRWA would undermine the Palestinian right under international law to return to homes abandoned in Israel or be compensated.

UNRWA funding freezes risk 'aiding' deaths in Gaza: Saudi official

The head of Saudi Arabia's humanitarian agency, Abdullah al-Rabeeah, speaks to AFP during an interview in Riyadh (Fayez Nureldine)

The head of Saudi Arabia's humanitarian agency, Abdullah al-Rabeeah, speaks to AFP during an interview in Riyadh.

Freezing funds to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees risks "aiding" the deaths of civilians in Gaza, the head of Saudi Arabia's humanitarian agency told AFP on Tuesday.

Several countries -- including the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan -- have suspended funding to the UNRWA agency in response to Israeli allegations that some of its staff members participated in the October 7 attack by Hamas militants.

Last week, as its war against Hamas entered a fifth month, Israel's military also said troops had uncovered a Hamas tunnel under UNRWA's evacuated Gaza City headquarters.

The UN has sacked the 12 UNRWA staff members accused by Israel of involvement in the October 7 attack and said the tunnel claim should be investigated once the conflict is over.

"We should not penalise the innocent people, millions of people who are living in Gaza, because of an accusation on a handful of people," Dr Abdullah al-Rabeeah, head of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, told AFP in an interview on Tuesday.

"If you have close to two million people living in a small place... and then the funding for the food and for the health basics is stopped, basically you are calling for them to live in, actually, disaster and also aiding in their death."

Rabeeah, who is also an adviser to the Saudi Royal Court, spoke as Gaza braced for an expected Israeli incursion into the crowded southern city of Rafah where more than a million Palestinians are trapped.

He warned that such an operation would produce "chaos" and potentially trigger the "complete stoppage" of aid trucks.

"We will see thousands of people losing their lives. Now people talk about the threat of epidemics, the threat of famine, and you name it. So we don't want to see any civilian get lost because of things that can be avoided," he said.

- Aid hurdles -

Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest sites in Islam, has never recognised Israel, though officials were considering doing so before the October 7 attack which killed about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

At least 28,473 people, mostly women and children, have died in Israel's relentless bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

While US President Joe Biden's administration has voiced optimism that Saudi-Israeli normalisation can be revived, Saudi Arabia said last week it had told Washington it would not establish ties with Israel until an independent Palestinian state is "recognised", and Israeli forces leave Gaza.

CIA Director William Burns was in Cairo Tuesday for a new round of talks on a Qatari-brokered ceasefire proposal that would temporarily halt fighting in exchange for Hamas freeing hostages.

Rabeeah said any deal should allow humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza "without any obstacles".

Saudi Arabia has sent 384 aid trucks and 20 ambulances into Gaza, he said, though he noted that an even greater amount of aid was stuck in Egypt, unable to cross into Gaza because of cumbersome regulations.

"We have newborn incubators -- this was not allowed to enter Gaza. So as a doctor, how would you imagine a newborn will survive if you deny him the basic need of an incubator?" he said.

"Some of the X-ray machines will not be allowed... How can you diagnose a patient without diagnostic tools?"

Altogether the Saudi agency has sent 5,795 tonnes of aid to support Gaza.

Rabeeah said that while reconstruction in Gaza still seemed far off, he hoped Saudi volunteers would participate directly if safety conditions permit.

"We hope to see our health workers helping the people of Gaza as much as they would be able also to help the people of Ukraine and other parts of the world," he said.

"Saudi Arabia is one of the top donors globally, and we will be one of those who will be active and in the front line when it comes to rebuilding of Gaza."

UNRWA leader: Calls for dismantling Palestine relief agency ‘short-sighted’

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said that calls for dismantling his organization are “short-sighted” and would cause a bigger crisis in Gaza.

“I have talked to the member states about all these calls to have UNRWA dismantled, to be terminated. I have warned about the impact, I have said that these calls are short-sighted,” Lazzarini said, according to Reuters.

The United States has frozen funds to UNRWA in the wake of a report that a dozen of its employees aided the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

This has set off a debate within the Democratic Party, with some lawmakers saying the U.S. should not freeze aid to the group given its role in providing relief to Gaza, a territory controlled by Hamas. Republicans have been much more hostile to UNRWA, arguing the organization is rife with antisemitism.

“There is absolutely no other U.N. agency or international [nongovernmental organizations] which have been tasked over the last two decades to provide government-like services like education to hundreds of thousands of children,” Lazzarini said in defending the organization he leads.

The agency was founded in 1949. It provides hygiene supplies, water and food to nearly the entire population of Gaza now. The agency’s spokesperson said the UNRWA has around two weeks left before some services get affected by the cutting off of aid.

The U.S., along with Britain, has mentioned it would not resume funding the agency until the U.N.’s internal investigation into the allegations concludes.

Lazzarini stressed the UNRWA’s impact extends beyond Gaza.

“If we want to give a chance to any future … transition to succeed, we need also to make sure that the international community has the tools, and one of the tools is UNRWA,” he said.

On Saturday, Israel claimed it found Hamas tunnels under the agency’s headquarters, further drawing scrutiny on the UNRWA. The agency said it abandoned the headquarters on Oct. 12.

“UNRWA … does not have the military and security expertise nor the capacity to undertake military inspections of what is or might be under its premises,” the UNRWA said.

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