The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued its order in the case between South Africa and Israel over ongoing genocidal acts in Gaza. It states, inter alia, that: “The State of Israel must take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of basic services and urgently needed humanitarian assistance to alleviate the difficult living conditions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

However, basic services and humanitarian aid can only be distributed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Within hours of the verdict, the State of Israel launched a campaign against the UN agency. It immediately announced that 12 UNRWA employees had participated in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October. Without delay, Washington withdrew its funding from the Agency. The UN Secretary-General has called for not throwing the baby out with the bathwater in order to ensure the continuity of UNRWA’s operations. “If UNRWA collapses, the entire humanitarian operation in Gaza will collapse. No organization can replace UNRWA in Gaza,” said New York office director Greta Gunnarsdottir.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said at the time: “The UN Secretary-General proves once again that the lives and security of Israeli citizens are not really important to him. After years of disregarding evidence presented to him personally about UNRWA’s support for and involvement in incitement and terrorism, and before conducting a thorough investigation to locate all Hamas terrorists and assassins within UNRWA, he focuses on raising funds for the organization of assassinations and terrorism. Any country that continues to fund UNRWA before a thorough investigation of the organization is conducted must know what its money will be used for, whether the aid that will be transferred to UNRWA can benefit Hamas terrorists instead of reaching the people of Gaza. I call on all donor countries to freeze their support and demand a thorough investigation of all employees of the organization.”

A dozen Western states then aligned themselves with the United States (Canada, Australia, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, France, Japan, Austria, Romania, New Zealand). To date, $500 million have been frozen.

According to the New York Times of 29 January, Israeli reports on the role of UNRWA employees in the 7 October attack included one who allegedly kidnapped an Israeli woman, another who allegedly took part in the attack on a kibbutz, a third who distributed ammunition, and a fourth who ran a weapons warehouse. Ten of the employees were identified as Hamas operatives and an eleventh as an Islamic Jihad operative. Seven of them are teachers working in the agency’s schools.

According to the Wall Street Journal of 29 January, about 10 per cent of UNRWA employees in Gaza have ties to Hamas or Islamic Jihad, and half of them have relatives who belong to these organizations.

12 employees represents 0.09 per cent of UNRWA’s employees in Gaza and only 0.04 per cent of its employees in the Levant.

Spokesman for the Israeli government Eylon Levy said that “UNRWA is a front organization for Hamas. This is the organization used by Hamas to whitewash information to foreign media.“ ”Now that we are learning the depth of the rot of this organization, we can begin to hold it accountable, even if it has the initials of the UN in its name,” he continued.

Today, the situation of Gazans is desperate. According to Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, 700,000 of them suffer from contagious diseases, including skin disorders, infections, diarrhea and jaundice. 1,700,000 have been displaced and are surviving in flooded tent camps. Most of Gaza’s 2.2 million inhabitants are hungry and have no access to clean water. UNRWA will no longer be able to provide its services before the end of the month.

This piece is drawn from our paywalled Voltaire, international newsletter n°72 and features as its editorial article. To find out more, don’t hesitate to subscribe : 150€ per year or 15€ per month.