US Congress’ move to defund UNRWA responsible for 87% budget shortfall, hindering Palestinian aid

US Congress’ move to defund UNRWA responsible for 87% budget shortfall, hindering Palestinian aid

we’re going to go back now to our top
story with Jonathan fer who is an unra
spokesperson joining me now from East
Jerusalem Jonathan I hope you can hear
me uh tell us about the situation in
Gaza at the moment what were the main
points that came out of the press
conference that was given by your
commissioner General earlier
today well um be be beyond the
absolutely tragic numbers I talking
about the number of internally displaced
people 1.7 uh million or the the the
death toll we’ve got over 304 ,000
people dead over 77,000 injured um
unprecedented humanitarian crisis there
is a particularly important point that
Philip lazarini flagged which is the the
level of trauma um which is ongoing
within this humanitarian situation um as
he as he put it um it’s not
posttraumatic stress disorder not PTSD
but ctsd in the sense of constant
Traumatic Stress Disorder so the daily
life the Quest for food the daily fear
of people in Gaza that that that that
continues and that is simply worsening
huge anxiety about the possibility of an
offensive in Rafa indeed and something
that we’ve just heard recently from uh
prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying
Tuesday that the Israeli military will
launch that ground offensive in Rafa
with or without a truce with Hamas when
you hear that how do you
feel this is extremely worrying um the
the population of Rafa has has swollen
by six times basically since the start
of this war there’s been Perpetual wave
of displacement from north to south
people have been displaced multiple
times within the Gaza Strip um so so the
number of people there the the the the
level of the humanitarian crisis that
that that could happen and of course we
have to hope that this does not happen
um but um the level of the crisis would
uh would would be far greater than
anything we’ve seen so far in this war
because of the sheer number of people
the sheer level of stress um the sheer
lack of supplies and the number of
people who are uh stuck in um basic
Bally in shelters um under the United
Nations Flag and we’ve seen of course
throughout this conflict that sadly the
United Nations Flag people go to these
shelters for protection and 400 people
have been killed in our premises since
the start of the war Jonathan what’s
being done exactly concretely to help
get Aid in at the moment for example are
you optimistic about this new pier this
floating platform that’s being built by
the US
Navy well all efforts to get more Aid in
are of course important but as with air
drop appears um I mean the the issue
here is that uh there there are options
which exist to to get Aid in and that’s
through land um we need to get 500
trucks a day of supplies into the Gaza
Strip the best that has been managed
since the start of this war was on the
22nd of April when 310 trucks of
supplies were able to get in so that’s
not 500 but on average um through this
month so in April um the daily average
has been 192 that falls far short but
land Crossings trucks that those are
really by far the best option and that
has to be the
focus Jonathan making things even more
difficult for unra unra lost much of its
funding in January after Israel alleged
that 12 of its 13,000 Gaza staff were
implicated in that attack October 7th
now those cases have either been closed
or suspended due to a lack of evidence
but what kind of effect would you say
has have those allegations had on your
operations in Gaza
well clearly if we were having this
conversation at the end of January
beginning of February the the agency was
was in something of an existential
crisis because the the financial
shortfall presented by the decision by
donors to to freeze funding um meant
that it was not possible to guarantee
the continuation of our operations in
Gaza and the rest of the region beyond
the end of February now as a number of
donors have returned over over the the
month since then the the situation the
level of crisis has has has eased but
we’re still we’re now in a position to
be able to continue operations through
to the end of June the big question is
what happens after that I just wanted to
mention that we we have of course um
there’s been a ground swell of
Grassroots solidarity as a result partly
of the what’s going on in the war in
Gaza but also um perhaps in response to
some some countries freezing uh funding
we’ve actually collected an
unprecedented amount of $115 million um
from the private sector for for example
and we’ve also had new donors come
forward um Iraq Algeria for example um
and a number of donors say Ireland Spain
which have actually increased their
traditional contributions but regarding
countries which have have lifted their
freeze um of course the fact that
Australia Canada Finland Germany Iceland
Japan and Sweden came back um that has
been absolutely critical for at least us
to be able to continue operations and
have some visibility through for the
coming two months right but then there
are countries for example like
Switzerland that have still not resumed
their funding of unra what are your
feelings about that and will countries
like that come back into the fold do you
need
them well indeed I mean we we we appeal
to all donors to return um today there
have been a number of decisions made um
within the Swiss parliamentary
commission which which is working on
this issue that’s very very fresh news
um and we’re still studying what this
will actually mean um because of course
the Swiss role in in humanitarian work
around the world is extremely important
um we we are also awaiting news from
Germany because of course Germany did
return but it only returns um for our
operations outside of Gaza but last week
Germany announced that they were
planning to resume funding for
operations within Gaza um we’re
currently um in discussion about the
amount Germany has been a top donor
notably for food Aid um so it’s
extremely important that that um that
that that donors traditional donors and
new donors step up on that front but of
course the the big issue for us Remains
the United States the US Congressional
decision um to to hold um put a hold on
any funding to onra through to March
next year the United States
traditionally our top donor and in fact
the US now represents about 80% 87% of
the money that that we’re lacking in our
budget to be able to continue operations
all right Jonathan thank you for taking
the time to speak to us Jonathan father
an un spokesperson joining me from East
Jerusalem

Food and other humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza have improved in April, but there is still far from enough to reverse the trend towards famine, said the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Only a handful of countries, including top donor United States, still have a block on their funds to UNRWA following Israeli accusations that members of its staff took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. UNRWA Senior Communications Manager Jonathan Fowler joins FRANCE 24’s Genie Godula to discuss the ‘unprecedented humanitarian crisis” in war-torn Gaza and how the US funding ban is affecting the UN agency’s operations assisting Palestinian refugees.

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