The director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) office in Lebanon announced today, Thursday, that the agency has no "alternative plan" for after March if donor countries, which suspended their funding following Israeli accusations, insist on continuing the funding freeze. Israel accused 12 out of the 13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza of participating in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. These accusations came after years of Israeli calls to dissolve the agency, at a time when residents of the Gaza Strip are facing widespread famine and little aid is reaching the region. Sixteen countries have suspended their funding pending the results of an investigation by the UN's oversight office.
UNRWA's director of affairs in Lebanon, Dorothy Klaus, stated that the results will be ready in a few weeks. She added, "We hope that as many donors as possible to the agency indicate that they are reconsidering the funding freeze, and that they will resume funding the agency in a way that hopefully won't put us in a cash flow problem and that services will continue uninterrupted." She clarified, "We do not have an alternative plan."
Her office may not actually be able to fund the quarterly cash distributions for about 65% of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Klaus said, "This will be the first indication to the community that UNRWA is in financial distress, and this will be the first service we will be unable to provide in the first quarter." She mentioned that although UNRWA has faced financial crises before, the collective suspension has led to an unprecedented crisis, and it would be a mistake to think that other agencies could fill the gap.
UNRWA manages 12 refugee camps in Lebanon and provides services ranging from healthcare and education to garbage collection. Klaus noted that if funding runs out, the streets of the camps would fill with garbage within two days. In response to a question about whether this would include scrutinizing the potential affiliations of UNRWA employees in Lebanon's camps with armed groups, Klaus said she expects her office to be consulted.
