What’s happening with funding to the United Nations agency for Israel and the Palestinians, known as UNRWA?

(CNN) — The suspension of funding by a growing number of Western countries to the UN agency providing aid to Palestinian refugees raises questions over the fate of the 5.9 million refugees it serves.

The United States and at least 12 of its allies withdrew funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) following Israel’s allegations that some of its staff were involved in a Hamas attack on October 7 . In which 1,200 people died and more than 250 people were taken hostage.

Israel subsequently launched a war against the extremist group, killing more than 26,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry, resulting in the displacement of most of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents, who are in need of humanitarian aid. .

Although details remain scarce, an Israeli official told CNN that Israel had shared information with the agency and the United States about the alleged involvement of 12 of UNRWA’s 10,000 staff in Gaza in the October 7 attacks. CNN was not shown the intelligence on which the allegations were based.

UNRWA fired several staff following the allegations and launched an investigation, promising that anyone involved in the 7 October attacks would be held accountable “including criminal action” if found responsible.

But beyond recent allegations, Israel has long-standing problems with UNRWA, which it accuses of helping Hamas and calls for its complete destruction.

Here’s what this could mean for the millions of Palestinians who depend on UNRWA for their livelihoods.

What does UNRWA do?

UNRWA was established by the United Nations a year after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, which led to the creation of Israel and the displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes in what Palestinians know as the Nakba (catastrophe).

The agency provides a wide range of assistance and services to Palestinian refugees and their descendants. It is a major source of employment for refugees, who make up the majority of its more than 30,000 employees in the Middle East, and it has representative offices in New York, Geneva and Brussels. More than 10,000 of its personnel are deployed in Gaza.

UNRWA is unique in that it is the only United Nations agency dedicated to a specific group of refugees in specific areas. Although its purpose is to support Palestinian refugees, UNRWA does not have the mandate to resettle them, as is the case with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). However, UNHCR has no mandate over Palestinian refugees in UNRWA areas of action.

Last year, the agency’s budget was $1.6 billion, most of which was spent on education and health, followed by other services such as improving infrastructure and refugee camps.

Since the beginning of the Gaza war, UNRWA issued an urgent appeal for US$481 million in additional funding for critical humanitarian needs.

What would happen if UNRWA ceased operations?

UNRWA is the main humanitarian aid group in Gaza. About 2 million Gazans are dependent on the agency’s assistance, with 1 million using UNRWA shelters to obtain food and health care amid fighting in the enclave.

For decades, the agency has provided Gazans with everything from food and health care to education and psychological support.

Along with the Palestinian Red Crescent, UNRWA is responsible for the distribution of almost all United Nations aid reaching the region. The agency has 11 food distribution centers for one million people in Gaza.

The UN has warned that current funding is inadequate and UNRWA could run out of funds in February.

Leo Cains, head of Doctors Without Borders’ Gaza mission, told CNN on Sunday that the situation could worsen, as aid reaching Gaza is already inadequate.

“(If) these trucks stop, people will die of hunger, and very quickly,” he said.

However, the impact of the closure of UNRWA’s operations may be felt far beyond Gaza.

Millions of Palestinian refugees live in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon and are dependent on the agency’s assistance.

For Palestinians on the ground in Gaza, the prospects for life without UNRWA appear bleak. At the UNRWA shelter school in Deir al-Balah, Gazans said they were worried about further suffering if UNRWA aid was suspended.

“UNRWA is the one that helps refugees and displaced persons,” Um Mohammed Al Khabbaz, a Palestinian woman living in a shelter, told CNN on Monday. “What will people be left with if they stop aid?”

University professor Alaa Khdeir called the measure an “oppressive decision towards the Palestinian people”.

“This will mean more hunger, poverty and deprivation, which ultimately means death,” Khadeer said. “It’s not just a problem; it’s a crime. It kills people.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday appealed to countries that have suspended funding to UNRWA to reconsider their decision.

“I strongly appeal to those governments that have suspended their contributions to at least ensure the continuity of UNRWA operations,” he said. “The dire needs of the desperate populations they (UNRWA staff) serve must be met.”

It is unclear which organizations might replace UNRWA if the agency is forced to cease operations. Yuval Shaini, a professor at the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said that even if UNRWA is forced to leave Gaza, Israel would want to pull out gradually to avoid worsening the situation on the ground.

“Despite the many criticisms (of UNRWA) over all these years, Israel has not pushed for the dismantling of UNRWA, and in fact has even cooperated with UNRWA on several occasions, as UNRWA requires.” Provides humanitarian services.” , he said that with the current situation in Gaza, it may not be realistic to completely remove UNRWA from the territory.

Why does Israel oppose UNRWA?

Israeli leaders had campaigned against UNRWA long before 7 October, criticizing the organization’s role in Gaza and elsewhere, as well as its definition of how Palestinians are eligible for refugee status. Recently, officials have sought to delegitimize the agency and have proposed abolishing it entirely.

In 2018, the United States under President Donald Trump ended all funding for the agency on Israel’s orders, with the State Department at the time describing the agency as “hopelessly flawed”. When Joe Biden became president in 2021, he reversed his predecessor’s decision and restored funding to UNRWA.

The United States has long been the largest single donor to UNRWA.

In 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to dissolve UNRWA and merge it with the UN’s main refugee agency, UNHCR.

More recently, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz suggested that Israel would try to prevent the UN agency from working in Gaza after the war, saying “this will not be part of the next day.”

“We’ve been warning about this for years,” Katz said. “UNRWA perpetuates the refugee problem, hinders peace and acts as the civilian arm of Hamas in Gaza.”

UNRWA has repeatedly denied Israel’s allegations that its aid goes to Hamas and that it teaches hatred in its schools, and has questioned “the motivation of those making such claims through extensive propaganda campaigns”. He also condemned the October 7 attack, calling it a “despicable” act.

The threat of UNRWA withdrawal from besieged Gaza has put UN officials and those reporting to the agency on alert.

Hebrew University’s Shaini said, “Israel does not see UNRWA as contributing to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.”

In contrast, Israel views the agency “as a mechanism that perpetuates the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” he told CNN. “And it perpetuates the conflict with respect to the right of return, in particular by designating 1948 refugees and their descendants as refugees.”

The right of return refers to the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel, recognized by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948. The fate of refugees is one of Palestine’s most controversial issues. -Israeli conflict.

Israel also considers UNRWA biased against itself, Shaini said. He said it “considers Israel to be one of the most hostile UN agencies against it in international forums.”

The agency defines Palestinian refugees as those who were evicted from their homes during the creation of Israel in 1948, as well as their descendants. Currently there are 5.9 million people here. Israel opposes their return and argues that such a large influx of Palestinians would destroy their Jewish character.

Netanyahu said in 2018, UNRWA “perpetuates the narrative of the so-called right of return, whose goal is Israel’s destruction. For these reasons, UNRWA must be closed down.”

According to UNRWA, 1.6 million of Gaza’s more than 2 million residents are refugees.

“According to Israel, it (UNRWA) perpetuates a narrative that people living in Gaza will one day return to Israel, and this motivates them to protest,” Shaini said.

– With reporting from Abeer Salman in Jerusalem and Mohammed Sawalhi in Gaza.