Unrwa chief visiting UAE, Qatar and Kuwait to drum up funding support

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) is visiting three Gulf countries this week, days after several key donors to the organisation paused funding. 

Israel has alleged that 12 out of the 30,000 employees at Unrwa were involved in the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October. Since then, at least nine countries including the US, UK and Germany, have suspended financing the agency. 

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of Unrwa, met with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

"We discussed the important role played by Unrwa in preserving the stability in the region and delivering humanitarian aid to #PalestineRefugees, particularly in the #GazaStrip where 2 million people depend on the Agency for survival," Lazzarini wrote on X. 

The agency chief is due to visit Kuwait and Qatar later this week, a UN spokesperson told Reuters. 

Unrwa was established in 1949 - a year after the Nakba (or catastrophe) in which 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes during the creation of Israel - to provide healthcare, education and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. 

In Gaza, it runs 183 schools, 22 health facilities and seven women's centres, among several other facilities.