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The Arab League has accused Israel of a “systematic campaign” against the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), after Israel alleged that employees of the agency had taken part in the October 7 Hamas attacks.
A joint statement by permanent representatives to the league said funding the UNRWA was a responsibility for the international community.
The US and seven other western countries said they would freeze funding for the UN agency after 12 employees were identified as possible suspects in the Hamas attacks that killed 1,200 people in Israel.
“The suspension of financing to the agency robs the Palestinians of any glimmer of hope, undermines peace prospects and pushes the region into further instability,” the Arab League said.
It called on all nations that froze funding to reconsider their stance.
The UNRWA was struggling to continue operations in Gaza long before the war with Israel broke out on October 7, killing more than 26,200 people in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
In a phone call with UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the funding freeze amounted to “collective punishment” against the agency's employees and the Palestinian people.
Among the agency's constituency are two million Palestinians in Gaza and half a million in Lebanon.
Jordan is also home to about two million Palestinian refugees, having received mass flows of people when Israel was created in 1948, and when Israel expanded during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
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Palestinian Muhammad Al Durra with his children in the ruins of a house in Rafah where they sheltered on January 11, 2024. EPA -
Family and friends at the funerals of journalists Hamza Al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya on January 7, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza. Getty Images -
Palestinians mourn relatives killed by Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip outside a mortuary in Khan Younis January 4, 2024. AP Photo -
Displaced Palestinians queue to bake bread at a camp in the Muwasi area of Rafah, Gaza Strip, on December 23, 2023. AP Photo -
Palestinians queue for food in Rafah, the Gaza Strip, on December 20, 2023. AP Photo -
The ruins of Rafah on December 14, 2023. AFP -
Palestinians wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip arrive at a hospital in Khan Younis on December 8, 2023. AP Photo -
Palestinians flee Israeli bombing along the Salaheddine Road in the Zeitoun district of Gaza city on November 28, 2023. AFP -
A Red Cross vehicle takes Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip into Egypt in Rafah on November 25, 2023. AP -
The ruins of buildings in Gaza city on November 24, 2023, as a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas took effect. AP Photo -
A woman and her cat return home to eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip during the first hours of a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas forces on November 24, 2023. AFP -
Mourning the dead of Israeli bombardment outside the mortuary at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on November 14, 2023. AFP -
Civilians and rescuers look for survivors in the rubble of a building after Israeli bombing of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 12, 2023. AFP -
November 7, 2023, a month to the day after Hamas attacked Israel, a victim of an Israeli bombardment in Rafah is moved from the rubble. AFP -
Searching the rubble after Israeli air strikes on the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on October 26, 2023. AP Photo -
Mourning the Kotz family at their funeral in Gan Yavne, Israel, on October 17, 2023. AP Photo -
An Israeli firefighter composes himself after he and his colleagues extinguished cars set on fire by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, Israel, on October 9, 2023. AP Photo -
Palestinians with the wreckage of an Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of the city of Khan Younis on October 7, 2023, the day Hamas forces swept unopposed into Israel. AP Photo -
Israeli police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, on October 7, 2023. AP Photo
“Even if the Israeli accusations are proven, punishing the refugees is not allowed,” Rafik Kharfan, head of the Palestinian Affairs Department at the Foreign Ministry told state television late on Saturday.
Mr Kharfan called for UNRWA funding “to be increased, not stopped”, referring to the “difficult conditions” the body is facing because of the war.
The UN now says more of its staff have been killed in the current war than in any other previous conflict, with 152 dead and 141 UNRWA compounds damaged in the war.
