Meanwhile, the UNRWA which has been providing humanitarian services in Gaza said it has fired several employees following the allegations that some of its employees were involved in the October 7 attacks on Israel, that triggered the current conflict.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates on Sunday criticised the decision by Western countries to suspend funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Meanwhile, the UNRWA which has been providing humanitarian services in Gaza said it has fired several employees following the allegations that some of its employees were involved in the October 7 attacks on Israel, that triggered the current conflict.
The US and several other countries have also paused funding to the organization, which employs around 13,000 people in Gaza.
On Sunday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said nine of the 12 UNRWA staff members at the centre of the allegations had been fired.
One other was dead while the identities of two others were “being clarified.”
The ministry in a statement issued on Sunday called for an immediate reversal of the move, noting that it entails great risk.
It described it as collective punishments and miserable double standards.
In the statement, the ministry called on the countries that suspended their funding to UNRWA to reconsider and withdraw from it, in a bias towards humanity and consistent with its declared positions on the need to protect civilians and ensuring their basic humanitarian needs.
The statement reads in part, "Suspending funding for UNRWA and continuing support for Israel in exterminating our people, collective punishments and miserable double standards.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates confirms that the decisions of a number of major countries to suspend their funding to UNRWA are highly politicized, disproportionate and unjustified, especially in light of the announcement by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to conduct the necessary investigations into the Israeli allegations and take the necessary measures imposed by the law regarding them, and the Ministry sees them as collective punishment.
"For millions of Palestinians, especially in light of the humanitarian catastrophe that our people are suffering from in the Gaza Strip, which our people are exposed to for the 114th day in a row, and in light of the need of all residents of the Gaza Strip for the aid provided by UNRWA, which is about to run out due to the decision of those countries, which constitutes a serious threat to the role of UNRWA humanitarian assistance in the entire region.
"The ministry sees in the decision of these countries a miserable double standard, as it continues to provide support and aid to Israel while realizing that its army is committing the worst forms of massacres, killing tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians outside the law, and imposing forced displacement.”
It also called on the “countries that suspended their funding to UNRWA to reconsider and withdraw from it, in a bias towards humanity and consistent with its declared positions on the need to protect civilians and ensuring their basic humanitarian needs”.
On Friday, UNRWA said that it had sacked several employees following information about their alleged involvement provided by Israeli authorities.
UN chief Antonio Guterres has ordered an “urgent and comprehensive independent review of UNRWA,” said his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the killing of 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and around 240 people were taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli officials. Approximately more than 100 people are still said to be in Hamas captivity.
Israel has since retaliated with constant bombardment and ground operation in the Palestinian enclave killing more than 26,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
As of Saturday, six European countries, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland, joined the United States, Australia and Canada in pausing the funding to the UN aid agency.
Berlin, on Saturday, became the latest European country to suspend funding saying so long as the accusation had not been cleared up, “Germany, in agreement with other donor countries” would for the moment withhold approval for further resources, said the foreign ministry in a statement.
Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said UNRWA should be replaced once fighting in the enclave dies down after accusing it of ties with the Islamist militants in Gaza.
“In Gaza’s rebuilding, @UNRWA must be replaced with agencies dedicated to genuine peace and development,” said Katz.
Notably, the UNRWA plays a significant role in the Palestinian enclave and helps provide education, health and aid services to two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million population.
“Any UNRWA employee involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution,” the UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini had said when the allegations were first levelled against the agency’s staff.
However, he did not disclose the number of employees allegedly involved in the attacks, nor the nature of their supposed involvement.