Within 24 hours of an allegation made by Mark Regev, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to the BBC last Friday, that 12 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) participated in the October 7 operation, foreign ministers of the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and a few other countries, jumped to announce they are pausing their funding to UNRWA, thus collectively punishing millions of Palestinian refugees throughout the region.
UNRWA has 30,000 employees, of which 13,000 work in Gaza, and provides services encompassing “education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance and emergency assistance, including in times of armed conflict” to about 5.9 million Palestinian refugees including education to 550,000 students throughout the region.
It is clear that this arbitrary decision, taken by Australia based on unsubstantiated allegations and before UNRWA’s investigation, is in line with Israel’s genocidal war and starvation policy against the Palestinians.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, in the last three and half months, Israel has killed 26,795 civilians including 12,345 children and 7,500 women, and wounded 69,445. Among those killed are 337 doctors and health workers, 119 journalists and 152 UNRWA employees. They have forced nearly two million people, out of 2.3 million, to flee their homes, completely or partially destroyed 355,000 homes and buildings, including 141 UNRWA schools and facilities, 25 hospitals, 99 schools and universities, 140 government buildings, 161 mosques, 3 churches, water and electricity stations, the Legislative Council building, the Gaza........