Germany on Wednesday said it would continue to fund the main United Nations agency assisting Palestinians in Gaza, known as UNRWA, after an independent review found that Israel provided no evidence of the allegations. forcing many donor countries to withdraw support for this agency.
This message may cause There are further tensions in Germany's longstanding close relationship with Israelwhich has worsened over differences over the war in Gaza.
Germany, the country that gave more 200 million USD to UNRWA by 2023is the agency's second-biggest donor after the United States, which also withdrew its funding and has not yet said whether it will restore it.
A statement from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development on Wednesday said: “The German government has carefully reviewed Israel's allegations against UNRWA and has been in close contact with the Israeli government, the United Nations and other stakeholders. other international sponsorship”.
The statement said Germany wanted the agency to take up recommendations from an independent review led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna to protect its neutrality.
The review was commissioned by the United Nations in January, shortly before Israel alleged that dozens of the agency's 13,000 employees in Gaza took part in Hamas-led terror attacks on October 7 or their aftermath, and many were members of Hamas or this organization. ally. In findings published on MondayHowever, the review did not mention whether some staff took part in the attack but said Israel had provided no evidence that many UNRWA workers belonged to militant groups.
Israel harshly criticized the report and repeated its claim that UNRWA should be disbanded.
After Israel's announcement in January, Germany joined more than a dozen other countries in pausing new funding to the agency, although it noted that no new funding was planned. Since then, several countries, including Australia, Canada and Sweden, have resumption of funding to UNRWA. The United States and Britain, among others, have not done so, while the State Department said this week it was reviewing the report on UNRWA.
German support for Israel is considered central to the modern German state, part of the national effort to atone for the Holocaust. Prime Minister Olaf Scholz was one of the first Western leaders to arrive in Tel Aviv after the October 7 attack.
But that support has been strained because of worsening conditions for civilians in Gaza under Israeli bombardment. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in February that “words hardly describe the situation of the people in Gaza,” and she has repeatedly warned of an Israeli invasion. Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, where more than a million civilians are taking refuge. from war.
Last week, as Ms. Baerbock made her seventh trip to Israel since the war began, her meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned tense. Israel's Channel 13 News reported. The channel reported that Mr. Netanyahu showed Ms. Baerbock full photos of market stalls and people bathing on the beach in Gaza, an apparent attempt to show that conditions in Gaza are not so bad. bad.
