UN agency vital for Gaza refugees: China Daily editorial

That 118 countries have signed a joint statement supporting the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East reflects the international community's recognition of the agency as an "indispensable" and stabilizing force carrying out aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East despite efforts by Israel to dismantle it.

Created by the UN General Assembly in 1949, the UNRWA provides education, primary healthcare and other development activities to about 6 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. But as a result of some countries halting their funding to the UNRWA following allegations by Israel that some of the agency's staff members were involved in the Oct 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that triggered the Gaza conflict, the agency is now facing a profound funding gap.

The UNRWA immediately suspended the 12 staff members implicated, and an investigation is still ongoing. But Israel has long called for the UNRWA to be dismantled, accusing it of anti-Israeli incitement, and Israel's Parliament is currently considering designating the UNRWA as a terrorist organization.

The UNRWA reportedly has only enough funds to operate through August, and requires $1.2 billion to cover critical humanitarian needs until the end of the year. In addition, the agency has been hit hard during the conflict in Gaza, with 195 staff members having been killed, "the highest staff death toll in UN history".

The dire situation that the UNRWA now finds itself in has prompted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to warn that Palestinian refugees "will lose a critical lifeline and the last ray of hope for a better future" without more support and financing for the agency. "Let me be clear: there is no alternative to the UNRWA," he told a UNRWA donation pledging conference in New York on Friday. He urged all UN member states to help ease the deepening financial crisis that the UNRWA faces so it can sustain its operations, given the pivotal role that the agency plays in providing assistance to the Palestinian refugees under the UN mandate.

The UNRWA now faces increasing challenges as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza persists. More than 38,300 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry, in the ground offensives and bombardments that Israel launched in response to the October Hamas attack that killed some 1,200 people, and led to the abduction of about 250 people. "Appallingly, civilians are being pushed into ever deeper circles of hell," the secretary-general said.

Thus ensuring enough funds for the UNRWA is not only about the survival of a UN agency, but also about the survival of people and the survival of Palestine refugees, especially women and children, across the Gaza Strip.

It came as a relief that pledges announced by UN member countries on Friday will be able to sustain the UNRWA's core budget until the end of September, reflecting the solidarity of countries in the face of the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave. Even the United States was among the signatories of the statement of support for the UNRWA, though it didn't attend the conference.

China has long provided humanitarian and development assistance to Palestine and supported the UNRWA in conducting its aid operations. Since the outbreak of the conflict, China has provided several batches of assistance to Gaza amounting to around $82 million.

At the pledging conference at the UN Headquarters on Friday, Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, said China would contribute $3 million to the agency to support its emergency humanitarian assistance efforts and called on the international community to support the agency in its work. China will also continue to work to realize a lasting cease-fire in Gaza as that is the only way to alleviate the humanitarian disaster that is taking place in Gaza.