Development ministers from EU member met on Monday to discuss the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza and the funding to UN’s aid agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) amid Israel's allegations against the agency for links with Hamas.
The meeting was hosted by the Belgian Minister of Development Cooperation and Major Cities, Caroline Gennez, and chaired by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell. Phillipe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, was invited as special guest.
The Belgian minister stressed her role as an honest broker in the meeting. “It's important that we keep supporting innocent civilians, that we ask for an immediate ceasefire, that we ask for the liberation of the hostages.“
Belgium has asked Israel for clarifications concerning the recent destruction of a building where the Belgian development office in Gaza was located. The investigation by the Israeli army has been on-going for a while but the Belgian foreign ministry is expected to receive an explanation in the coming days.
EU foreign affairs council convenes sometimes in different configurations but these informal sessions do not lead to any binding conclusions. No conclusions were issued after the meeting but a summary was published by the Belgian EU Presidency.
Humanitarian crisis
Lazzarini gave a detailed account of the situation on the ground in Gaza and addressed the “recent accusations of the Israeli government against the agency regarding the involvement of some UNRWA staff members in the horrendous 7th of October attacks, and the alleged presence of tunnels used by terrorist organization Hamas near its headquarters.”
The ministers shared a deep concern about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza and the planned Israeli ground offensive to Rafah at the border with Egypt. Israel says that it is in contact with Egypt which fears that the civilian population in Rafah will try to cross the border to Sinai.
Rafah, where more than 1,4 million people have sought refuge from the war in the other parts of the Gaza Strip, is still held by Hamas. The border has been closed by Egypt for refugees from the war but serves as the main crossing point for convoys of humanitarian aid. Lazzarini and the EU warn that the population will have no safe place to go to in Gaza if the war would expand to Rafah.
“I think that we agreed on the absolute need to contribute to the work of UNRWA on protecting civilians,” High Representative Borrell said in his remarks at the press conference after the meeting. He admitted that there are different approaches among the member states.
Some countries have decided to suspend the support to UNRWA pending the outcome of the investigations or not to commit any new payments. Others have decided to increase their support. Borrell sees his task as uniting the member states in a common position but appeared to have stepped -up his rhetoric in his pursuit for unanimity.
Allegations and investigations
He welcomed the investigations into UNRWA and felt confident that the UN is taking them seriously but insisted that the allegations have to be proven. They have been reported in media, including names of the staff concerned in the terrorist attack. The tunnel built by Hamas under UNRWA’s headquarters in Gaza has been shown to journalists.
Israel meanwhile has said that it cannot disclose the intelligence files and that it is the responsibility of UNRWA to investigate the allegations. The first allegations concerned the involvement of a small number of UNRWA staff in the terrorist attack on 7 October. That prompted UNRWA to fire them and the UN to initiate an investigation by its Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).
“I have already sacked them because of the allegations but without any due diligence,” Lazzarini said at the press conference. He explained that the allegations were serious enough for him to act quickly and terminate their employment.
Uncertainty about EU audit
UN has also announced the creation of an independent panel to “assess whether the agency is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious breaches when they are made”.
The panel, led by a former French foreign minister, will work with three Scandinavian organisations. Its final report is due by 30 April but Lazzarini hoped that the preliminary report will be ready in a few weeks’ time.
In addition, the European Commission wrote in a statement on 29 January that it expected UNRWA to agree to carrying out an audit of the agency “to be conducted by EU appointed independent external experts,” focusing specifically on the control systems needed to prevent the possible involvement of its staff in terrorist activities. Israel has claimed that up to 10 % UNRWA’s staff might be linked to Hamas.
Currently, no additional funding to UNRWA is foreseen until the end of February but a critical payment of ca. €80 million is due in beginning of next month. Lazzarini referred journalists to Borrell about the EU audit. According to Borrell, the Commission never asked for the EU audit to be finished but only to be launched before next EU payment.
The statement is not clear on this point and it might be his own interpretation. The Commission has until now not provided any information about the EU audit or when it will be launched.
UNRWA in co-existence with Hamas
As regards the other allegations about the tunnel with data servers under its headquarters, the Commissioner-General was more defiant. In a tweet on X, he claimed that UNRWA did not know what was under its headquarters because it had left them already on 12 October. “We have not used that compound since we left it, nor are we aware of any activity that may have taken place there.”
However, the tunnel, deep under UNRWA’s headquarters and apparently connected to it by electric cables, must have been dug long before the outbreak of the war. The existence of an extensive terrorist network close to or under UNRWA facilities points to the dilemma which UNRWA is facing when working in Gaza.
UNRWA’s mandate is to provide aid and social services to the Palestinian refugees in Gaza but it depends on Hamas - the de-facto authorities in Gaza - and risks being compromised and infiltrated by the terrorist organisation.
Already in 2017, the agency protested against tunnels passing under two of its schools. The protests did not help and the tunnel network only expanded. The tunnels enable Hamas to launch attacks and to prolong the war. There they can hide, store weapons, keep the Israeli hostages and use the UN facilities as a cover.
High Representative Borrell proposed in the beginning of the war a plan for Gaza for the “day after”. One of the points in his plan is that there is no place for Hamas after the war. It should be removed from power to allow for the peace process towards a two-state solution to get started. Does UNRWA agree with him or does it have another solution to its dilemma in Gaza?
Needed for regional stability
“Any activity taking place there has been under the authority of Hamas since it took over power in 2007,” Lazzarini replies. He understands the question as a call for the dissolution of UNRWA, not only in Gaza but everywhere else in the region. “It would be a mistake and impact peace and security in the region.”
Instead, Lazzarini highlighted UNRWA’s role as a counterweight to Hamas, especially in the area of education, where the agency has adopted the curriculum of the Palestinian Authority, including human rights and gender equality. “For this UNRWA is constantly criticized by Hamas,” he said. “Our presence (in Gaza) offers a different prospect for the future of the children.”
As an example, he mentioned UNRWA’s summer camps for school children. Last summer they were attended by more than 250,000 children, compared to the 20,000 children that participated in the summer camps run by Hamas.
In 2019, the former Commissioner-General of UNRWA was forced to resign after an internal mismanagement scandal. Asked if he intended to resign to restore the trust in UNRWA after the latest serious allegations, Lazzarini replied that he had no intention to do it.
“For the time being, if I believe I can make a difference, I’ll continue to do it,” he said. He is convinced that there is no alternative to UNRWA for the millions of Palestinian refugees that are registered, neither in Gaza nor in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the West Bank. Beside Jordan, they have not been integrated in any country in the region.
Report deadline approaching
Borrell reminded that protecting civilians has been the work of UNRWA for many years, since 1949, when it was created to support the Palestinian refugees.
“If this agency disappears, it will have a devastating effect on 5.6 million people,” he said. “They are stateless, because there is no Palestinian state. There is only one way in which this agency can be dissolved. The agency should be dissolved when there is no more Palestinian refugee problem.”
Israel meanwhile argues that UNRWA is part of the problem because it has been perpetuating the Palestinian refugee problem and largely turned a blind eye to what has been going in Gaza during Hamas’ rule. The Israeli government might want to dissolve UNRWA in Gaza but seems also aware that there is no realistic alternative to it in the current humanitarian crisis.
Israel has also committed to report to the International Court of Justice within in a month after its ruling on 26 January. The court order directed Israel to do everything in its power to avoid deaths and injuries in the Gaza Strip and to allow humanitarian access for the Palestinian people. Israel should also prosecute incitement to hatred and genocide by extremists.
Until now, the Israeli authorities allowed demonstrators to block the entry of aid convoys from a crossing point on the Israeli side of the border. No extremist has yet been prosecuted for his statements. No violent settlers on the West Bank have been arrested. Government ministers have attended a meeting calling for resettlement of Gaza. And the deadline for the report is approaching.
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
