GENEVA: The chief of UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Tuesday said that enough funds have been secured to continue with its operations until at least the end of May.
UNRWA, which handles nearly all assistance to Gaza, has been in crisis since Israel blamed its some of 13,000 employees in Gaza for of being involved in the October 7 attack on Israel.
The Israeli move led many donor countries, including the United States, to suspend funding to the agency, threatening its efforts to deliver much-needed aid in Gaza.
Last month UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini had warned that the cut in funding was so much that the organization might not be able to function beyond March.
Lazzarini said after a number of countries recently resumed their funding, including Australia, Canada and Spain the situation today is less problematic.
He went on to say that the organization has funding until the end of May. Lazzarini is in Switzerland to brief country’s parliament foreign policy commission on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The Swiss national is expecting to convince his country to follow the lead of the nations that have restored their funding to UNRWA.
The United Nations has launched both an internal and an independent probe but said Israel has not given any evidence to support the claims against its staff.
Lazzarini has accused Israel of trying to destroy UNRWA, which has some 30,000 employees across the Palestinian territories.
He was himself stopped last week from entering Gaza, and said a that Israel had definitively barred the agency from making deliveries into Gaza.
According to the health ministry in Gaza Israel’s relentless bombardment has killed at least 32,414 people in the area, most of them women and children.
