VIENNA, January 29. /TASS/. The decision of a number of Western countries to suspend funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) amid reports about the involvement of some of the agency’s employees in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 may violate their commitments under the Genocide Convention, Palestinian Ambassador to Austria and Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations Salah Abdel-Shafi said.
"I am deeply shocked by the actions of these states. The UNRWA employs 13,000 people in the Gaza Strip alone. And these countries have made a decision collectively punishing millions of Palestinians in a critical moment because of accusations against 12 employees, which have not yet been investigated or explained. And this was done just a day after the International Court of Justice concluded that Israel is probably committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. It is necessary to see whether these countries’ actions violate their obligations under the Genocide Convention," he said in a statement released by the Palestinian diplomatic mission.
He stressed that UNRWA support "is needed for the survival of the Palestinian population." "There is a risk that humanitarian assistance, which two million people in the Gaza Strip depend upon, may be stopped completely," Abdel-Shafi stressed.
According to earlier reports, a number of countries, including Austria, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Germany, announced their decision to suspend financing for the UNWRA following reports about suspected links of some of the agency’s employees with Hamas. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini ordered to dismiss several agency employees due to their alleged connection to the Hamas attack on Israel last year.
On January 26, the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered that Israel take all necessary measures to prevent acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip. Under the court ruling, Tel Aviv is supposed to take all possible measures to prevent any actions falling under the Genocide Convention in the Gaza Strip and inform about them within a month.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1948 and came into force in 1951.