UNRWA, Gaza’s last remaining lifeline, as a humanitarian crisis threatens Palestinians, the U.N. and its Palestinian citizens, says Irfan
As fighting escalates in Gaza, so too does a catastrophic humanitarian crisis that is leaving millions without food, water or access to medical care.
The soaring death toll has brought new attention to UNRWA, whose duties not only put workers in danger but also extend across much of Gazan life. It is one of the largest employers, with some 13,000 staff members who work at schools and health facilities and even oversee garbage pick up.
The U.N. group is the “last remaining lifeline for the Palestinian people in Gaza,” according to Philippe Lazzarini, the agency’s commissioner. But he has also said it’s perched “on the verge of collapse,” struggling to carry out operations as Israel’s total siege over the territory continues to sap resources.
Education was the most funded part of UNRWA, running schools for half a million children.
Roughly two-thirds of the 2.3 million people in Gaza are registered under the agency’s criteria, according to the website.
At least 99 UNRWA aid workers died during the recent war in Gaza, according to a statement from the agency’s commissioner.
The U.N. still gives UNRWA a mandate, but it doesn’t guarantee the organization much funding to deliver on it.
The recent financial data shows that UNRWA receives most of its funding from U.N member states. The agency says it received over $1 billion in total pledges last year. The United States was the top individual donor in 2022, followed by Germany and other European countries.
For many of these countries, the incentive for funding UNRWA is maintaining a sense of stability in the region, said Anne Irfan, a lecturer at University College London who studies the international refugee system.
“Historically, the primary concern, certainly on the part of the U.S., was that Palestinian refugees might be susceptible to communist recruitment,” she told NPR in an interview last week. These days, some politicians have swapped the word “communist” for “terrorist,” the official U.S. designation for Hamas fighters. The rationale is the same.
In 2018, the Trump administration withheld millions of dollars in aid funding for UNRWA and other Palestinian aid groups. The holdup would pressure UNRWA to reform, but the then-president said that the cuts were related to Palestinian leaders not talking peace.
On Oct. 7, Hamas-led militants crossed from Gaza into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking over 240 hostages, according to counts from Israeli authorities.
The Health Ministry in Gaza says that more than 11,000 people have died and many more have been displaced as a result of Israel’s bombardment and ground offensive.
Following a deadly round of fighting in 2007, Israel implemented a strict land, air and sea blockade on Gaza, which not only limited the region’s economic prospects but has severely limited the inflow of basic goods like food and medicine over the last decade and a half.
UNRWA says that there are only 30 trucks a day through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, not enough to meet demand.
The Dismantling of the Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) and the Palestinian Refugees’ Concern over Israeli Militia
The agency has placed a special emphasis on the lack of fuel, which it says is needed to power generators for everything from hospitals to water treatment plants.
UNRWA supports a permanent cessation of violence to stop what it called “horrific and unacceptable” killing of civilians, and supported an immediate humanitarian cease-fire.
The largest UN agency in Gaza has lost at least 104 workers in five weeks of Israeli bombing. Most did not die in the line of duty but instead while at home, often in strikes that also killed members of their families, U.N. officials said.
In some instances, the aid that UNRWA was providing was “really basic” before the war broke out. “It’s water rations or food provisions — stuff we would probably consider emergency relief.”
But Israeli politicians, including current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have at times called for UNRWA’s dismantling, saying that the agency does the work that should be done by a government that includes elected Hamas officials.
According to Bregman, a common complaint among Israeli politicians is that UNRWA views the children of Palestinian refugees as refugees themselves, which has increased the number of dependents it treats over time.
They were both male and female. The largest number were teachers. Others included school principals, warehouse workers, engineers, a software developer, a gynecologist and a man in charge of staff safety. He was killed with his wife and their eight children in their home, according to the communications director for UNRWA, the agency that cares for Palestinian refugees.