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The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) distributes food to people in the Gaza Strip
Photo: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / REUTERS
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has announced that Spain will give an additional 3.5 million euros to the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA). Madrid had provided 18.5 million euros directly to UNRWA in 2023, including 10 million euros approved in December - following a government decision to triple development and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territories.
Several Western countries had previously temporarily suspended their payments to UNRWA, including the two largest donors, the USA and Germany. The reason for this are Israeli allegations that twelve employees of the aid organization were directly or indirectly involved in the terrorist acts by the Islamist Hamas and other extremist groups on October 7, 2023 in Israel.
The government of the socialist Pedro Sánchez had already signaled last week that it considered this to be the wrong approach. According to reports, Albares telephoned UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini on Friday and signaled to him that Madrid would continue to support the aid agency.
On Monday, the Foreign Minister campaigned for his decision in Parliament. Albares spoke of a “serious risk” that the aid organization might have to stop its humanitarian activities in the Gaza Strip in just a few weeks. In recent months, the Spanish left in particular has criticized Israel's conduct of the war.
WHO warns of catastrophe due to payment stops
While Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for UNRWA to be discontinued, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) recently called for a differentiated debate about the UN aid agency and called for the allegations to be clarified quickly. "The situation in Gaza is simply hell," she said last week. UNRWA is almost the sole provider in Gaza, as all other aid organizations there "can hardly be active at the moment."
"We know that what is currently there is only enough for a few weeks," said the Foreign Minister against the backdrop of the humanitarian suffering in the Gaza Strip. That is why Germany has increased humanitarian funding for the Red Cross and the UN children's fund Unicef. But these funds would also have to be distributed. It is therefore essential that the UN fulfills its responsibility, initiates an investigation and, at the same time, carries out an independent audit of UNRWA, in which European actors are also involved.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned last week of a catastrophe in the Gaza Strip due to payment stops. According to him, no other organization has the capacity to provide the same level of aid to the 2.2 million people in the Gaza Strip. He called on all countries to maintain their payments to UNRWA.
czl/slü/Reuters/dpa