In early February, the Secretary-General appointed a group to address Israeli accusations of 12 UNRWA employees being involved in Hamas-organized terror attacks in Israel in October. The group, led by former French minister Catherine Colonna, plans to meet with Palestinian Authority officials and may also seek permission to visit Gaza. Colonna made these statements after meeting with the UN Secretary-General outside the Security Council.

She stated that her objective is to provide a thorough and fact-based report and to strive for the most effective means of assisting UNRWA in fulfilling its mandate from the General Assembly.

According to Ms. Colonna, the team started their tasks on February 13th and anticipates completing an initial report by the end of March. Their responsibilities include defining the procedures at the UN organization to guarantee impartiality and overseeing their execution.

Since 1949, UNRWA has been providing aid to nearly six million Palestine refugees in the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Gaza, where many Palestinians rely on the agency for urgent assistance due to Israel’s ongoing military actions in response to the October attacks.

The ongoing war in Gaza has killed almost 30,000 Palestinians, displaced more than one million and has restricted humanitarian aid from entering the enclave, which now faces severe hunger, according to a joint appeal from UN agency chiefs issued on Thursday morning.

Respect for neutrality is essential.

The goal of this “very sensitive” mission is “to find the ways and means to see that UNRWA does everything it can to ensure neutrality, which is one of the basic principles of the agency and a principle that’s difficult to respect in the circumstances – but must be respected”, Ms. Colonna said.

She stated that the group plans to release suggestions in their conclusive document, projected to be published on April 20th.

Ms. Colonna is collaborating with a group from three different research institutions: the Raoul Wallenberg Institute located in Sweden, Chr. Michelsen Institute located in Norway, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights located in Denmark.

Their role is to evaluate the implementation of mechanisms and procedures and determine if they have been fully utilized, taking into account the specific operational, political, and security context in which the agency operates.

A concluding summary will be released to the public.

Source: news.un.org