UN urges funding pause reversal, WFP sees famine in Gaza

Artillery fire rocks Gaza.

At least nine countries, including top donors the US and Germany, have paused funding for the UN refugee agency for Palestinians

UN officials urged countries to reconsider a pause in funding for the UN agency for Palestinians on Sunday, vowing that any staff found to be involved in Hamas' attack on Israel would be punished and warning that aid for some two million people in Gaza was at stake. 

At least nine countries, including top donors the US and Germany, have paused funding for the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) after allegations by Israel that a dozen of its 13,000 staff in Gaza were involved in the Oct 7 rampage. 

"While I understand their concerns – I was myself horrified by these accusations - I strongly appeal to the governments that have suspended their contributions to, at least, guarantee the continuity of UNRWA's operations," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday, vowing to hold to account "any UN employee involved in acts of terror". 

He said this could include criminal prosecution - a rare move within the global body since most staff enjoy functional immunity, although Guterres has the power to waive it. 

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner-general, also urged countries to "reconsider their decisions before UNRWA is forced to suspend its humanitarian response." A UN investigation into the Israeli allegations is currently under way. 

More than 26,000 people have been killed in Israel's military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, the enclave's health ministry said. With flows of aid like food and medicine into the territory just a trickle of pre-conflict levels, deaths from preventable diseases as well as the risk of famine are growing, aid officials say. 

Since the Oct 7 attacks, which killed 1,200 people in Israel, most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have become more reliant on the aid UNRWA provides, including about one million who have fled Israeli bombardments sheltering in its facilities. 

Responding to Guterres' statement, Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan called on all donor states to suspend their support and demand an in-depth investigation into "the involvement of all UNRWA employees in terror." 

He added in a statement that Guterres' appeal for continued funding for the agency had "proven once again that the security of the citizens of Israel is not really important for him." 

Observers and aid workers said the move by the donors would exacerbate hunger.

The World Food Programme said on Tuesday that very little food assistance has made it beyond southern Gaza since the start of the conflict and that the risk of pockets of famine in the Palestinian enclave remained. 

Israel's offensive launched in the wake of a deadly rampage by Hamas militants in southern Israel on Oct 7 has displaced most of Gaza's 2.3 million population and caused acute shortages of food, water and medical supplies. 

At least 25,295 people in Gaza have been killed, according to Palestinian authorities, with thousands more feared buried under the rubble of a coastal strip largely laid to waste. 

"It's difficult to get into the places where we need to get to in Gaza, especially in northern Gaza," said Abeer Etefa, WFP spokesperson for the Middle East. 

"Very little assistance has made it beyond the southern part of the Gaza Strip ... I think the risk of having pockets of famine in Gaza is very much still there." 

Since the start of hostilities, aid deliveries to northern Gaza have been limited, and the area was cut off altogether from external aid for weeks earlier in the conflict. 

Etefa noted that there was a "systematic limitation on getting into the north of Gaza, not just for the WFP". 

"This is why we're seeing people becoming more desperate and being impatient to wait for food distributions, because it's very sporadic," she said. - Agencies