al jazeera

By Lyndal Rowlands

         Thousands fleeing fighting in Khan Younis have arrived in overcrowded Rafah, where people are sleeping on the street and in tent camps flooded with sewage.
   Cutting a “lifeline” to 2 million people in Gaza is “collective punishment”, says Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.
   Several countries, including the United States, are reviewing funding to UNRWA after Israel alleged some of its staff were involved in Hamas’s October 7 attacks.
   At least 26,257 people have been killed and 64,797 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139.

    More from UN boss Antonio Guterres on UNRWA

    “The United Nations is taking swift actions following the extremely serious allegations against several UN Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA] staff members. An investigation was immediately activated,” said Guterres in a statement.

    “Of the 12 people implicated, nine were immediately identified and terminated by the Commissioner General of UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini, one is confirmed dead, and the identity of the two others is being clarified.

    “Any UN employee involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution. The Secretariat is ready to cooperate with a competent authority able to prosecute the individuals in line with the Secretariat’s normal procedures for such cooperation.

    “Meanwhile, 2 million civilians in Gaza depend on critical aid from UNRWA for daily survival, but UNRWA’s current funding will not allow it to meet all requirements to support them in February.”

    Defunding UNRWA could be ‘violating’ Genocide Convention: UN expert

    Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has said that states that cut funding to UNRWA could be “violating their obligations under the Genocide Convention”.

    “The day after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded that Israel is plausibly committing Genocide in Gaza, some states decided to defund UNRWA,” Albanese said in a post on social media.

    Albanese also described the decision taken by several UNWRA donors as “collectively punishing millions of Palestinians at the most critical time”.