DOHA: The State of Qatar stressed its firm stance on the necessity of continuing and intensifying the relief efforts to the Gaza Strip, warning of the catastrophic repercussions of stopping the support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
This came during a phone call made by Minister of State for International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lolwah bint Rashid Al Khater today with UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.
During the call, they discussed cooperation relations between the State of Qatar and UNRWA, especially in the humanitarian field in the Gaza Strip. They also discussed the importance of forming an international team to coordinate unhindered aid delivery to all areas of the Strip.
The Qatari foreign minister affirmed the continuation of Qatar’s contributions in providing urgent relief to the Gaza Strip. She also urged the international donors to continue providing the necessary support, especially in light of t
he international community’s failure to reach a political solution that leads to stopping the ongoing aggression on civilians in the Strip for the past four months.
She pointed out that UNRWA supports millions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, warning that suspending its funding will negatively affect its work and its ability to respond to the urgent needs of Palestinians in all these regions.
The Qatari minister stressed that review, transparency and accountability regarding the agency’s work are extremely important and that justice requires not to practice collective punishment on the Palestinian people unjustly.
She stressed that Qatar considers UNRWA one of the most important UN agencies, and therefore its donations to the agency increased during previous years. Qatar was also the first Arab country to sign a multi-year agreement with UNRWA in 2018 to support its main resources, she added.
She further voiced Qatar’s call that meeting the vital humanitarian n
eeds of the Palestinian people must be a top priority for the international community, ‘especially in light of their worsening suffering from the scourge of occupation, siege, aggression, and Israel’s obstruction of the entry of aid in blatant defiance of international law and the provisional measures of the International Court of Justice in this regard.’
For his part, UNRWA Commissioner-General confirmed that the agency had taken all legal measures to investigate the allegations that affected a small group of its employees. In this regard, he stressed that the agency has remained and will remain committed to the values of the United Nations, and it should not be accused, punished or overlooked for its major vital roles.
He also warned of the consequences of the collective cessation of support for UNRWA, pointing out that this matter would pose an existential threat to the agency and could lead to the complete cessation of its work within weeks.
He also underscored that the repercussions would affect the P
alestinian refugees in the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, who depend almost entirely on UNRWA work in those areas.
Source: Palestine news and Information Agency