Tag: UNRWA

UNRWA Says 6 Workers Among at Least 18 Killed in Israeli Strikes on Gaza School

UNRWA Says 6 Workers Among at Least 18 Killed in Israeli Strikes on Gaza School

The future of UNRWA and Hamas in Gaza

How Israel wants to replace the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

The future of UNRWA and Hamas in Gaza

UNRWA Attacked by Israel 453 Times Since October

Children stand near the destruction of a facility

News

UNRWA Says Its Facilities Have Been Attacked by Israel 453 Times Since October

More strikes on Gaza with no ceasefire in sight

A Palestinian boy stands among rubble from a UN-run school that was housing displaced people in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, and was hit during an Israeli bombardment.

Israel doesn’t even know if any of the 40 killed were Hamas. Yet they are prepared to make the excuse that it was a legitimate precision strike because the 30 Hamas militants they were targeting were holding 6000 Gazans hostage. (Old Dog)

On T hursday, Israel hit a Gaza school building with what it said was a targeted airstrike on up to 30 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters inside, and a Hamas official said 40 people were killed including women and children sheltering at the UN site.

Israel’s military said it had identified nine of 30 militants targeted in the strike. The UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said its school was being used as a shelter for 6000 displaced people at the time.

Source: More strikes on Gaza with no ceasefire in sight

“Burn down the United Nations” chant Israeli mob in UNRWA HQ attack – Pearls and Irritations

Philippe Lazzarini speaks during press encounter with Ayman Safadi, Ian Borg, Philippe Lazzarini at security council stakeout at UN Headquarters in New York on April 17, 2024. Image: Alamy/ lev radin / Alamy Stock Photo

This evening, Israeli residents set fire twice to the perimeter of the UNRWA Headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem.

This took place while UNRWA and other UN Agencies’ staff were on the compound.

While there were no casualties among our staff, the fire caused extensive damage to the outdoor areas. The UNRWA headquarters has on its grounds a petrol and diesel station for the Agency’s fleet of cars.

Source: “Burn down the United Nations” chant Israeli mob in UNRWA HQ attack – Pearls and Irritations

October 7 Survivors Sue Student Protest Group SJP

gettyimages-1804966291-e1715355165420

It’s a mad, mad world of American Lawfare and who has the $$ to use it.

Four lawsuits alleging Hamas ties against Students for Justice in Palestine, the AP, UNRWA, and a cryptocurrency exchange share many of the same plaintiffs.

Source: October 7 Survivors Sue Student Protest Group SJP

Why Scapegoating the UN Relief and Works Agency — Which Helps Palestinians — Must Stop

Source: Why Scapegoating the UN Relief and Works Agency — Which Helps Palestinians — Must Stop

The World concludes that Israeli Lies Smeared the Main Aid Agency helping Starving Palestinians as “Terrorists”

The Israeli authorities, in their campaign of remorseless killing, doctoring and adjusting the numbers of the Palestinian populace for whatever future awaits, have been found wanting on accusations that Hamas terrorists packed, stacked and filled UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East).

Source: The World concludes that Israeli Lies Smeared the Main Aid Agency helping Starving Palestinians as “Terrorists”

Israel’s Anti-UNRWA Campaign Falls Flat – » The Australian Independent Media Network

From the perspective of lusty warmongers, UNRWA remains an obstacle, a nuisance, a nightmare of reminder to those wishing to be done with the Palestinian issue once and for all. May it continue to thrive, and, more ever, may its funders finally wise up to the fact that in the viciousness of conflict, civilians should never have to pay the price for military actions undertaken by others. Unfortunately, three months after, and a human-confected famine ravaging Gaza even as the killings continue, various donor countries such as the United States, Germany and the UK are still minding their wallets.

Source: Israel’s Anti-UNRWA Campaign Falls Flat – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia backs report on Palestine aid agency UNRWA

Israel is as slippery as an eel. Their false claim made before Easter intentionally crippled the distribution of aid in Gaza and increased illness and starvation in the process. Why does the WEST give Israel the benefit of the doubt?

Australia has welcomed an independent report Israel failed to provide evidence members of a United Nations agency that provides humanitarian relief to Palestinians were linked to Hamas.

Source: Australia backs report on Palestine aid agency UNRWA

Old Dog Thought- Israel says “Jump” Biden says ” How high” evidence not required

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 24/4/24, Lobbyists, Lehrmann, UNRWA, Collective Punishment,

Israel yet to prove UNRWA staff are terrorists

Israel has not yet proved UNRWA staff are members of terrorist organisations, a report has found.

Israel has yet to provide evidence for its accusations that hundreds of staff with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) are members of terrorist groups, according to a review of the agency’s neutrality that could prompt some donor countries to review funding freezes.

UNRWA provides education, health and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The review said UNRWA shares staff lists annually with the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

On Monday, the review said Israel had not raised any concerns with UNRWA, based on those staff lists, since 2011. Then in March 2024, “Israel made public claims that a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organisations.”

Source: Israel yet to prove UNRWA staff are terrorists

Israel gave no evidence UNRWA staff linked to ‘terrorism’: Colonna report | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera

Displaced Palestinians wait to receive United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) aid, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

“Israeli authorities have to date not provided any supporting evidence nor responded to letters from UNRWA in March, and again in April, requesting the names and supporting evidence that would enable UNRWA to open an investigation.”

The groups are the Swedish Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, the Norwegian Chr Michelsen Institute, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

Source: Israel gave no evidence UNRWA staff linked to ‘terrorism’: Colonna report | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera

UNRWA is facing a campaign to push it out of the occupied Palestinian territory – Pearls and Irritations

The Commissioner-General of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, Philippe Lazzarini addresses the United Nations Security Council meeting at U.N. Headquarters Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Image: AAP/AP Craig Ruttle

Israel leads the Right-wing push against Refugeeism. Yet can’t exist without American aid

This is a time of seismic change in the Middle East. At the heart of this region, the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees – UNRWA – is a stabilising force. Today, an insidious campaign to end UNRWA’s operations is underway, with serious implications for international peace and security, says Philippe Lazzarini.

Source: UNRWA is facing a campaign to push it out of the occupied Palestinian territory – Pearls and Irritations

Israel subjects UN workers to torture | The Electronic Intifada

While Israel tries to focus on the campus “torture of Jews” the real torture goes on behind the mainstream media  print

Israel is abusing UNRWA employees detained in Gaza in order to extract forced confessions against the agency, with detainees describing being subjected to acts of torture.

Source: Israel subjects UN workers to torture | The Electronic Intifada

As Gaza Faces Famine, Israel Cuts Ties with UNRWA and U.S. Halts Funding for Critical Aid Agency

Despite a U.N.-backed report sounding the alarm on imminent famine in northern Gaza, Israeli authorities announced Sunday they will no longer approve the passage of any UNRWA food convoys into northern Gaza. “Our ability to adequately continue saving lives is really being obstructed,” says UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai. “What’s going to happen to UNRWA if we can no longer truly operate?” The decision came as President Biden signed a $1.2 trillion appropriations bill that strips funding to UNRWA for the next year. The U.S. first suspended aid to UNRWA in late January, when the Israeli government claimed 12 of the agency’s 30,000 employees were involved in Hamas’s attacks on October 7. The unsubstantiated allegation prompted top donors to cut funding to UNRWA, though many of them have resumed funding as the agency welcomes new donor countries and an unprecedented number of civil society donations. Seeing the U.S., the agency’s largest donor, “withhold funding … is a huge blow to us,” says Alrifai. “Stripping UNRWA of funding not only shrinks its ability to respond to the looming famine in Gaza, but also puts at risk the schools, the access of kids to proper education, the vaccines, the mother and child care — everything across the region.”

https://democracynow.cachefly.net/democracynow/360/dn2024-0328.mp4?start=2891.0

Draft UN Report Calls for Arms Embargo on Israel

Israel on Monday informed the U.N. that it will no longer allow UNRWA convoys carrying food aid into northern Gaza, even as the Palestinians are starving to death, a move that one humanitarian campaigner called a “death sentence.”

Source: Draft UN Report Calls for Arms Embargo on Israel

Old Dog Thought- Israel is punishing Gaza because Hamas has showed they’re not the Gods they pretend to be & the Middle East is watching

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 25/3/24, Limbo The Movie, Enviroment, UNRWA, Israel’s Meddling in US politics, Burning Ideas, Lehrmann, Trump follows Hitler,

US State Department Claims It Hasn’t Seen Reports of Israel Torturing UNRWA Staff

Vedant Patel speaks during a press conference

The U.S. and more than a dozen other nations suspended funding for UNRWA in the wake of the Israeli allegations. In what UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini later called an act of “reverse due process,” the agency terminated nine employees in response to Israel’s claims, despite admitting to having no evidence to support their firing.

Source: US State Department Claims It Hasn’t Seen Reports of Israel Torturing UNRWA Staff

Sen Van Hollen Says Netanyahu Spreading ‘Flat Out Lies’ About UNRWA

Palestinians children at UNRWA school.

The Maryland senator defended the organization on CBS and said there was no evidence that it was a “proxy for Hamas.”

Source: Sen Van Hollen Says Netanyahu Spreading ‘Flat Out Lies’ About UNRWA

Not just the UNRWA report: Countless accounts of Israeli torture in Gaza | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera

Bald, bearded man lying exhausted on a reclined hospital bench, with a blanket pulled over him

On Monday, the Times of Israel reported that the country’s forces intended to unilaterally dismantle UNRWA within Gaza, with its functions hived off to other agencies of the military’s choosing.

While it was not clear which agencies the Israeli military had designated, or if negotiations were under way, the report did note that this move against the agency came as the latest in a longstanding campaign to discredit it, which goes back to UNRWA’s 1949 founding, mandating the agency to support displaced Palestinian refugees until they could return home.

As hunger worsens, with 15 children reported to have starved to death in recent days, UNRWA’s role in helping prevent what agencies are warning of a “humanitarian crisis” grows increasingly vital.

Other agencies, such as the Danish Refugee Council have warned that neither they nor other NGOs still operating in Gaza can replicate UNRWA’s role.

Source: Not just the UNRWA report: Countless accounts of Israeli torture in Gaza | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera

Gaza Aid and the West: An Honorable Way out of Complicity in Genocide Does not Exist

An honourable way out of complicity in genocide does not exist. Certainly, governments may be able to rely on the fact that Israel has, so far, failed to provide credible evidence to justify its allegations that UNRWA staff members were involved in the 7 October incursion into Israel. But genocide is a war crime, and starvation as a weapon of genocide is not only dishonourable, but intentional.

Source: Gaza Aid and the West: An Honorable Way out of Complicity in Genocide Does not Exist

Canada, Sweden Restore UNRWA Funds as Report Accuses Israel of Torturing Agency Staff

UNRWA -funded school detroyed in Gaza

Trucks get in but the IDF is stopping them. Israel hasn’t provided sufficient entry points near the areas most needed. So to self-congratulations is stands out and shines a spotlight on their real intent to continue to weaponize starvation.

“The work that UNWRA does cannot be overstated,” said Canadian lawmaker Salma Zahid. “It will save lives as we have seen the visuals of children dying of hunger in Gaza. The need for immediate aid is non-negotiable.”

Source: Canada, Sweden Restore UNRWA Funds as Report Accuses Israel of Torturing Agency Staff

UNRWA is at a breaking point – Pearls and Irritations

Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East Philippe Lazzarini speaks during UNGA meeting at UN Headquarters in New York on March 4, 2024.Image: AAP/ Lev Radin/Sipa USA

It is impossible to adequately describe the suffering in Gaza. The death toll in Gaza is staggering. More than 30,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in just 150 days. 5% of the population is dead, injured or missing. Doctors are amputating the limbs of injured children without anaesthetic. Hunger is everywhere. A man-made famine is looming. It is a stain on our collective conscience that for 75 years UNRWA has had to fill a vacuum left by the lack of a political solution and a genuine peace. And yet UNRWA is now facing a deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine its operations, and ultimately end them, writes UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

Source: UNRWA is at a breaking point – Pearls and Irritations

Cuts to UNRWA Are Devastating Gaza

UNRWA, the United Nations Palestinian refugee relief agency, has faced severe funding cuts after Israel dubiously accused the organization of ties to Hamas. We spoke with a director of UNRWA in Jordan about the impact of the cuts.

Source: Cuts to UNRWA Are Devastating Gaza

Palestinians of Gaza are Starving: Don’t Cut Aid

Israel’s Minister For National Security demands All Aid to Gaza be cut.  Ex- Terrorists have always advocated politics before Religion. He’s a Zionist and a Jew. However, all Jews around for 3000yrs aren’t Zionists around for less than 200yrs and the two shouldn’t be conflated. Zionists wish to change Judaism into an idolatrous cult. If you’re anti-Zionist you’re not antisemitic the two aren’t equivalent.

To feed children, treat the wounded, and save innocent lives, the U.S. must restore UNRWA’s funding.

Source: Palestinians of Gaza are Starving: Don’t Cut Aid

Defunding UNRWA Makes US Complicit in Genocide

Israel will ceasefire on Trump’s request leaving Biden naked and gone

Creating conditions that threaten the survival of all or part of a given population is part of the very definition of genocide under international law. To feed children, treat the wounded, and save innocent lives — and avoid being complicit in genocide — the U.S. must restore UNRWA’s funding and use its leverage to compel an immediate cease-fire in the conflict.

Source: Defunding UNRWA Makes US Complicit in Genocide

The War on UNRWA Is Israel’s Awful, Absurd War in Microcosm

The US and more than a dozen other countries cut off aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, worsening the humanitarian crisis in Gaza based on charges US intelligence has “low confidence” in. It’s as cruel and absurd as this entire war.

Source: The War on UNRWA Is Israel’s Awful, Absurd War in Microcosm

Absence of Evidence: Israel’s Case Against UNRWA – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In the meantime, Lazzarini has been scrambling to fill the funding void, making visits to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait. The dying and starvation in Gaza continue with the prospect of even more horror as Israel’s armed forces prepare their offensive on Rafah. A fine thing, then, to see donor countries for UNRWA, some of whom continue funding Israel’s military efforts, to moralise about terrorists and the agency.

Source: Absence of Evidence: Israel’s Case Against UNRWA – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Chris Hedges: Let Them Eat Dirt

“UNRWA’s role in documenting the genocide, as well as providing food and aid to the Palestinians, infuriates the Israeli government.”

“Israel has given the Palestinians in Gaza two choices. Leave or die.”

Source: Chris Hedges: Let Them Eat Dirt

Old Dog Thought- Israel’s Diplomatic Invitations are as Duplicitous as it’s media releases on the war

Fighting Fake News with Real 7/2/24, Every Picture, UNRWA, Palestinian Boys body Confiscated,

Old Dog Thought- Things that go Ka-Ching in the Dark

Fighting Fake News with REAL 5/2/24, Kangaroo Court, UNRWA, Michael West Media, Secrets at the Top,

Are UNRWA aid cuts an Australian breach of Genocide Convention, or another double standard? – Michael West

UNWRA

Does Australia’s government treat Jews and Palestinians differently, both in foreign policy and at home? Defunding the UNWRA is the latest example of double standards and puts Australia at further risk of breaching the Genocide Convention. Farah Abdurahman on aid cuts, false allegations and fake chants.

Source: Are UNRWA aid cuts an Australian breach of Genocide Convention, or another double standard? – Michael West

UNRWA funding cuts threaten Palestinian lives in Gaza and region, say 20 NGOs – » The Australian Independent Media Network

 

We urge donor states to reaffirm support for the vital work that UNRWA and its partners do to help Palestinians survive one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of our times. Countries must reverse these funding suspensions, uphold their duties towards the Palestinian people and scale up humanitarian assistance for civilians in dire need in Gaza and the region.

Source: UNRWA funding cuts threaten Palestinian lives in Gaza and region, say 20 NGOs – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australia’s withholding of aid to Gaza a human rights disgrace

Has this decision been foisted on them by the Australian Israeli Lobby, the LNP, Murdoch, or IPA? It’s certainly not a decision ALP voters would expect of their government. If Palestinian refugees came by boat would they find themselves in forced detention in open-air offshore concentration camps again? We know what Peter Dutton’s position is on that score Yes. While telling Australia it’s a holiday resort compared to where they are now. Israel will be the people smugglers and supply the boats with the foreign aid they already get from us no doubt.

There can be little more morally degenerate than the enabling of and cooperation with what the ICJ has warned is Israel’s “plausible genocide” in Gaza. Wong and Albanese have lost all moral authority and should prepare themselves for their every public utterance to be greeted with contempt, derision and scorn.

The Australian Government has paused contributing to the distribution of aid to Gaza, a decision likely influenced by our toxic allegiance to the USA. Dr Jennifer Wilson reports.

Source: Australia’s withholding of aid to Gaza a human rights disgrace

The Australian government’s pause of funding to UNRWA is irresponsible and shameful – Pearls and Irritations

Palestinian people holding empty bowls try to reach out for food distributed by volunteers at donation point as Israeli attacks Palestinian people holding empty bowls try to reach out for food distributed by volunteers at donation point as Israeli attacks continue in Dair El-Balah, Gaza on January 26, 2024. The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees UNRWA has termed humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip.. Photo by Omar Ashtawy apaimages Dair El-Balah Gaza Strip Palestinian Territory 260124_Dair_EL-Balah_OSH_1_0038 Image: alamy/ xapaimagesxOmarxAshtawyxxapaimagesx

Has British Law has been thrown out the window by what Mark Regev simply ALLEGES?  12 Independent UNRWA workers out of 13,000 weren’t  “Independent” ERGO the biggest UN Aid Agency is a systemic agent of HAMAS? Stop the aid!! Mark Regev is a proven systemic essential of Israel’s  current offensive he is a central suit in Israel’s attack on Gaza. The 12 UNRWA workers of 13,000 weren’t! What bullshit logic is being applied here?

12 black sheep don’t define a herd of 13,000.  One sandwich doesn’t make a picnic. We didn’t judge Israel or suspend arms supply when allegations of genocide were made or that the IDF was ordered to shoot their own citizens. We continued supply when it was alleged Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem were being murdered and kidnapped. In fact, we allowed Israel to conduct their own investigation sometime in the future. That is an Israeli Promise!

Within 24 hours of an allegation made by Mark Regev, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to the BBC last Friday, that 12 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) participated in the October 7 operation, foreign ministers of the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and a few other countries, jumped to announce they are pausing their funding to UNRWA, thus collectively punishing millions of Palestinian refugees throughout the region.

Source: The Australian government’s pause of funding to UNRWA is irresponsible and shameful – Pearls and Irritations

ICJ Ruling on Gaza Genocide Is Victory for Palestinians That Israel Vows to Defy

Pro-Palestinian activists wave flags during session of the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday, Jan. 26, 2024. Israel is set to hear whether the United Nations' top court will order it to end its military offensive in Gaza during a case filed by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide. (AP Photo/Patrick Post)

It really does seem like a conspiracy with Israel having killed 157 UNRWA staff and many more other independent observers like reporters. A simple allegation accusing the UNWRA of being a systemic branch of Hamas is enough to cut aid. AIPAC and the Israel Lobby appear to have Biden on a  short string in this 2024 election year and had him cut aid to Gaza on their behalf. 1M children lack clothing food water, fuel or electricity and winter is coming on. America and its Western allies have been drawn into war crimes and assisting in an act of genocide.

The 17-judge panel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued a series of rulings on Friday about Israel’s conduct during its war against Gaza that constitute a significant legal defeat for Israel and its chief defenders, the United States and Germany.

Source: ICJ Ruling on Gaza Genocide Is Victory for Palestinians That Israel Vows to Defy

As Civilians Starve in Gaza, Israelis Block Humanitarian Aid Convoy for Third Day – ScheerPost

The Actions of Israel are a reported factual embarrassment to them. The ICJ  told Israel to increase the flow of aid to Gaza and stop using it as a weapon. It’s no coincidence that to continue to restrict aid they accused the UNRWA of being a systemic branch of Hamas. However, simply an allegation rather than a fact. The US or Biden is wedged by Trump in this election year and has been dancing to the Israel Lobby’s tune and has cut UNRWA aid to Gaza. Biden is Israel’s get-out-of-jail card. The UNRWA was a source of independent information that Israel didn’t want to be revealed so reporters and doctors had to be declared branch of Hamas?

The blocking of aid at Kerem Shalom also comes days after the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported that the IDF launched an attack with artillery shells, live ammunition, and drones on “hundreds of starving civilians” who were waiting near Gaza City for “U.N. trucks carrying limited aid supplies.” Health officials in Gaza said at least 20 people were killed and 150 were injured in the attack.

Source: As Civilians Starve in Gaza, Israelis Block Humanitarian Aid Convoy for Third Day – ScheerPost

Biden Cuts Off Life-saving Aid to Palestinians Based on Israeli Allegations Against UNRWA – ScheerPost

Israel says “Jump ” Biden says “How High?” This is a case of the “Tail Wagging the Dog” Or is simply “A Tale Wagging the Dog?” The LOBBY & AIPAC  certainly are!

Biden cut aid on the advice of ISRAEL?

Israel’s war on Gaza live: Aid cuts are ‘collective punishment’ – UNRWA

In December, UNRWA announced that Israel’s onslaught against Gaza had killed 142 employees of the organization.


The State Department paused additional funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) after the Israeli government accused 12 UNRWA workers of being involved in the October 7 Hamas attack.

Source: Biden Cuts Off Life-saving Aid to Palestinians Based on Israeli Allegations Against UNRWA – ScheerPost