Spain will ship the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee company UNRWA an extra 3.5 million euros ($3.8 million) in help, Overseas Minister Jose Manuel Albares advised lawmakers on Monday (Feb 5).
Main donors to UNRWA, together with america and Germany, suspended funding after allegations emerged that round 12 of its tens of hundreds of Palestinian workers had been suspected of involvement within the Oct 7 assaults in Israel by Hamas.
Madrid contributed 18.5 million euros on to UNRWA in 2023, together with 10 million euros accredited in December following the choice to triple growth and humanitarian help to the Palestinian territories.
FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER TO REVIEW UNRWA
On the identical time, a former French overseas minister will lead a evaluation of operations on the embattled UN company for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, which might be performed by three impartial analysis organizations in Scandinavia.
Catherine Colonna’s appointment was introduced Monday by UN Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres after consultations with the top of the help company often called UNRWA.
Guterres additionally named the three organizations chosen to hold out the evaluation: the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Norway, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
Guterres mentioned the ultimate report might be accomplished by late April and made public.
UNRWA’s Commissioner-Normal Philippe Lazzarini requested an impartial evaluation of the company following Israeli allegations that 12 of its 13,000 Gaza employees participated in Hamas’ Oct 7 assaults in southern Israel, which led to the present struggle.
UNRWA SUPPLIES AID TO MILLIONS OF PEOPLE
Greater than a dozen international locations suspended help to UNRWA due to the allegations.
UNRWA offers very important help and companies to tens of millions of individuals throughout the Center East, and in Gaza, it has been the principle provider of meals, water and shelter to civilians through the present struggle.
The group conducting the evaluation will begin work on Feb 14 with a mandate, “To determine the mechanisms and procedures that the Company presently has in place to make sure neutrality and to answer allegations or info indicating that the precept might have been breached.”
It is usually charged with figuring out whether or not or not these measures have been carried out and whether or not they’re satisfactory, and to make suggestions for enhancing them if vital. Its mandate says the group ought to have in mind “the actual operational, political and safety setting by which the company works.”
The impartial evaluation will happen alongside an investigation of the Israeli allegations by the UN’s inner watchdog, the Workplace of Inner Oversight Companies, ordered by Guterres.