Qatar is among UNRWA’s most important regional donors and was the first Arab country to sign a multi-year agreement with the agency in 2018.
Qatar stressed its unwavering support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on Monday after more than 10 countries stopped funding the entity over Israel’s accusation of having employees who contributed to the October 7, 2023 attack.
In a phone call, Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation Lolwah Al Khater reiterated Doha’s support for the agency to UNRWA’s Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.
Al Khater urged international donors to continue providing UNRWA with the necessary means of support, “especially in light of the international community’s failure to reach a political solution that leads to stopping the ongoing war on civilians” in Gaza.
“UNRWA supports millions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, warning that suspending its funding will negatively affect its work and its ability to respond to the urgent needs of Palestinians in all these regions,” Al Khater said, as cited in a readout of the conversation by Qatar’s foreign ministry.
Major donors including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Japan, and Australia halted their aid to UNRWA on Saturday.
The move came after Israel accused 12 of UNRWA’s employees of allegedly being involved in Hamas’s surprise attack of October 7, 2023, where the group took in 240 Israeli captives.
The UN then suspended the jobs of nine out of the total people accused of being involved in the attack. The decision came following a lack of evidence and at a critical time, where Gaza’s 2.2 million population are living under a genocide coupled with a complete Israeli air, land and sea blockade.
Israel has killed at least 26,637 people while wounding at least 65,387 others.
Qatar noted “that review, transparency, and accountability regarding the agency’s work are extremely important” while stressing “that justice requires not to practice collective punishment on the Palestinian people unjustly.”
The conversation between Al Khater and Lazzarini also tapped into the cooperation between Qatar and UNRWA, which Al Khater said will continue, in addition to the importance of establishing “an international team to coordinate unhindered aid delivery to all areas” in Gaza.
Qatar is among UNRWA’s most important regional donors and was the first Arab country to sign a multi-year agreement with the agency in 2018.
Last December, Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) and UNRWA signed a $18 million agreement for the year 2023-2024 to support Palestinian refugees amid the ongoing Israeli aggression in Gaza.
The Qatari entity previously contributed $18 million to cover the years 2021-2022.
Also in 2023, Qatar Charity announced a $1.17 million contribution to UNRWA for two years to provide refugees in the besieged Gaza Strip with healthcare.
UNRWA was established in 1949 in light of the forced dispossession of Palestinians by Israel to make way for illegal Jewish settlers. The agency has since supported refugees across the West Bank, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.
The agency was going through a “chronic underfunding crisis” even before the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza and had urged for donations to support Palestinians in the besieged enclave. The agency is now grappling with a worsening humanitarian catastrophe and is barely able to provide sufficient aid to more than 1.9 Palestinians.
Aid has barely been reaching Palestinians in Gaza under Israel’s limitation of the entry of trucks through the Rafah and Karem Abu Salem crossings.
Israelis have been holding regular protests in front of the Israeli Karem Abu Salem crossing to demand the release of the remaining captives, blocking the entry of aid to Gaza’s population.
Commenting on the countries’ decision to suspend their funding to UNRWA on Saturday, the agency’s chief warned that the move threatens its “ongoing humanitarian work across the region including and especially in the Gaza Strip.”
“It is shocking to see a suspension of funds to the Agency in reaction to allegations against a small group of staff, especially given the immediate action that UNRWA took by terminating their contracts and asking for a transparent independent investigation,” Lazzarini said at the time.
He highlighted the International Court of Justice’s provisions on Friday that ordered Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance” in Gaza.
Lazzarini added that the decision to halt funding the agency is threatening the jobs of 3,000 of its staff who are in Gaza.
“It would be immensely irresponsible to sanction an Agency and an entire community it serves because of allegations of criminal acts against some individuals, especially at a time of war, displacement and political crises in the region,” he said.
The Norwegian Refugee Council also expressed its dismay over the countries’ “reckless” decision on Monday, saying it was “deeply concerned and outraged that some of the largest donors have united to suspend funding for” UNRWA.
“We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job,” the NRC said in a statement.
Israel has been targeting UN agencies and facilities, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been sheltering, since the start of its genocidal war. Israel killed at least 152 UNRWA staff and damaged at least 145 facilities run by the agency.
“Countries must reverse these funding suspensions, uphold their duties towards the Palestinian people and scale up humanitarian assistance for civilians in dire need in Gaza and the region,” the NRC said.
