1y ago

UNRWA Set to Lose $65 Million, Documents Show

www.nytimes.com

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the main aid agency in Gaza, is set to lose $65 million by the end of February as donors’ funding cuts begin to kick in, according to internal accounting documents reviewed by The New York Times.

At least 18 states or institutions, including many of the agency’s biggest funders, announced they were suspending their donations to the agency, known as UNRWA, after accusations emerged last month that several employees participated in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

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26 comments

I understand not wanting to fund terrorists. Whether the number of terrorists in UNRWA justifies cutting off support or not is moot. We've done it.
But desperate people with no hope are easy recruits for terrorist organizations. If you don't trust UNRWA, you can't just cut off aid to the region and wipe the dust from your hands like you fixed something. It much be replaced with something.
Caring for the people in need in Gaza is not charity. It's self defense. It is an investment in peace. Every nickel we saved in UNRWA funding is 10 dollars in war and rebuilding we have to spend later.
- Worse.
  Dip shit Israel.
  Who do they thing is going to fill the void left when UNRWA is out of the picture? Palestineans are gonna need HAMAS to get the same services.
  Israel is doing this to themselves.
- Funding UNRWA is the primary factor perpetuating this conflict. I agree that aid should come, ideally from some neutral unbiased side, but funding UNRWA is the opposite of an investment in peace
  
  How is UNRWA perpetuating anything? The conflict isn't ending because Israel doesn't want Palestine to have a state. They've been pretty clear about that.
This episode has left me wondering why humanitarian aid to Gaza seems to mostly come from 'the West'. Is there a reason the Arab states don't want to pick up the tab, at least temporarily? This sounds like chump change on a nation level...
- They do, though. A lot of Palestinian aid comes from Arab states.
  
  Do you have a source?
  I just looked at UNRWA's donor list and it seems to agree with me.
  Sweden alone pays more than Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait combined
- Qatar has been building a lot of hospitals in Gaza among other aid. Many of them now destroyed by Israel.
- They are funding the terrorism. They don't care about the people. North Korea paid to build much of the tunnels, and not out of passion for human rights.
The countries that cut the funding after the ICJ ordered to provide humanitarian aid to the 1.5 refugees - they are now complicit in the coming genocide.
They always scream when Israeli is accused of war crimes that we should wait for an investigation. But when the Israeli regime that has been shown to lie incessantly these past months accuses UNRWA - and on the same day of the ICJ ruling, they immediately hop to.
It is just disgusting. And for the first time in my life I'm deeply ashamed of my country.
- They changed that number down to 6, and that is assuming the allegations are even real.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the main aid agency in Gaza, is set to lose $65 million by the end of February as donors’ funding cuts begin to kick in, according to internal accounting documents reviewed by The New York Times.
UNRWA’s operation plays a critical role in the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
More than 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.2 million people have been displaced by the war, and more than half of the population are now sheltering in repurposed schools and centers run by the agency.
UNRWA also oversees the distribution of the meager supplies of aid that arrive each day to Gaza by truck.
Already, aid agencies are warning of famine amid profound food shortages and the collapse of the health care system.
Since donor states began suspending their funds, the agency has received an unusually high number of private donations from individual citizens seeking to fill the void.
The original article contains 418 words, the summary contains 153 words. Saved 63%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

26 comments