The embattled UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, will open an office in Ankara in the coming weeks, its head Philippe Lazzarini said during a visit to the Turkish capital on Thursday.
– We signed the final agreement with the Turkish government, and this time it was also approved by the parliament – he told reporters, adding that it is “a matter of weeks” until the office starts working.
The move comes a day after UNRWA said it was going through a “serious” financial crisis, forcing it to lay off 571 Gazan employees who were still working for the agency after being evacuated from the war-torn territory.
UNRWA said the “extremely difficult” decision was the result of funding problems caused by a drop in voluntary donations, following a campaign of increasing criticism and attacks on Israel.
For more than seven decades, the agency has provided aid to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, and continues to operate “despite many, many restrictions,” Lazzarini said.
Last year, Israel banned UNRWA from operating inside the country, and Lazzarini said Israel was also trying to suspend the agency’s work in the Palestinian territories.
– The government of Israel wants to dissolve UNRWA, to ensure that the agency has no future role in Gaza and possibly in the occupied Palestinian territories – he said.
– If the agency cannot, or must stop operating in Gaza or the West Bank, it will create a huge void. Basically, there is absolutely no partner or capacity that could take over public services on this scale and with the mutual trust that the agency has enjoyed so far – he added.
Israel has been increasing pressure on UNRWA for the past two years.
He accused the agency of providing protection to Hamas fighters, claiming that some UNRWA employees took part in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.
A series of investigations found some “problems in the neutrality” of UNRWA, but Israel has not provided conclusive evidence for its main accusations.
(Vijesti.ba)
