The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Monday that it would not be able to continue operations in Gaza and across the region beyond the end of February if funding were not resumed.
A string of countries, including the U.S., Canada and Britain, have paused their funding to the aid agency in the wake of allegations that 12 UNRWA staff were involved in the Oct. 7 attacks led by Hamas in southern Israel.
“If the funding is not resumed, UNRWA will not be able to continue its services and operations across the region, including in Gaza, beyond the end of February,” a spokesperson for the agency said.
Several European Union countries paused funding as well.
The European Commission said on Monday it would review whether it could continue to fund UNRWA in light of the allegations concerning 12 of its estimated 13,000 staff in Gaza.
“The European Commission will determine upcoming funding decisions for UNRWA in light of the very serious allegations,” the commission said in a statement.
“The Commission will review the matter in light of the outcome of the investigation announced by the UN and the actions it will take.”
No additional funding for the organization is currently foreseen until the end of February, the commission said.
“On the one hand, we have these extremely serious allegations, and it’s obvious that these need to be investigated seriously and without delay,” commission spokesman Eric Mamer told reporters.
“Secondly, UNRWA is a partner for humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. We recognize fully that aid to Palestinians needs to continue.”
The Sunday Magazine17:08The latest on the Israel-Hamas war following ICJ ruling, UNRWA allegations
On Friday, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must take steps to prevent genocide in Gaza, but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire in a case brought forward by South Africa. Shortly after, Israel alleged that members of UNRWA, the UN’s relief agency for Palestinians, were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. CBC News foreign correspondent Chris Brown joins Piya Chattopadhyay from Jerusalem to help explain these latest developments in the Israel-Hamas war.
2 more journalists killed in Gaza
Inside Gaza on Monday, residents reported deadly airstrikes on neighbourhoods in Gaza City that also wounded many people.
Among those killed were two Palestinian journalists, Essam El-lulu and Hussein Attalah, along with several members of their families, health officials and the journalist union said.
“The war continues in a dirtier manner,” said Gaza City resident Mustafa Ibrahim, a Palestinian human rights activist now displaced with his family in Rafah, near the southern border with Egypt, along with more than a million other Gazans.
Israel, which blames Hamas for the deaths of civilians, ordered new evacuations of the most populated areas of Gaza City, but people said communications blackouts meant many would miss them.
Those that did flee had to run the gauntlet of Israeli tanks placed on the main north-south road, residents said.
People in the north have been grinding animal feed to make flour after flour, rice and sugar ran out, part of an aid crisis now exacerbated by the withdrawal of support to UNRWA.
“What is the world waiting for? Animal feed has begun to run out of northern Gaza markets,” local journalist Anas Al-Sharif wrote on X. “What will people eat when animal feed runs out?”
Airstrikes also hit the southern city of Khan Younis. Israel said that four among dozens of Palestinian gunmen it had killed in the past 24 hours had been preparing to ambush troops near Al-Amal hospital.
In the middle of Gaza, health officials said 13 Palestinians were killed in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood after Israeli forces stormed a shelter for displaced people there.
The Gaza war has also inflamed violence in the occupied West Bank. Five Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in four different incidents there in the past 24 hours, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Palestinian officials say 26,422 people have been killed in the response to the Oct. 7 attacks, with thousands more bodies likely under the rubble of destroyed buildings across the coastal territory.
Around 1,200 people were killed during the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, including several Canadians. Israeli officials said 253 others were taken hostage, with about 130 yet to return home after a late-November pause that saw dozens of hostages freed.
U.S. suffers troop fatalities
Meanwhile, Washington promised to respond to the first deadly strike on its forces in the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war began.
Three U.S. servicemen were killed and at least 34 wounded in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, U.S. Central Command said on Sunday.
WATCH l ‘Dangerous step:’ Retaliation likely after deadly attack:
Three soldiers were killed in an overnight drone strike targeting U.S. troops near the Syrian border. President Joe Biden has vowed to retaliate, adding to fears of an escalated conflict in the Middle East.
U.S. President Joe Biden said the attacks were carried out by Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq. Iran denied any role.
Biden has ordered retaliatory attacks on Iranian-backed groups but has stopped short of attacking Iran directly, for fear of igniting a broader war amid violence that has already hampered world trade through attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
“Have no doubt — we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing,” he said on Sunday.