The United States Will Transfer Aid To UNRWA To Other Aid Institutions

UNRWA service at the Palestinian refugee shelter. (Twitter/@UNRWA)

JAKARTA - President Joe Biden's administration will transfer funds to the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) to other aid agencies working in Gaza, if Congress passes legislation that would ban funding, deputy State Department spokeswoman Vedant Patel said on Monday.

Last month Washington said it was temporarily suspending new funding for UNRWA, while the agency investigated allegations of a dozen staff involved in the Hamas Group's attack on Israel Oct. 7.

Patel said at a news conference the bill, negotiated by President Biden's Administration and bipartisan senator groups, included $1.4 billion for Gaza's humanitarian aid, but it could be sent to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), UNICEF or other aid groups.

"This is real money that we believe will save lives and have a direct impact on Palestinian civilians, and we will transfer UNRWA funds to other partners to provide assistance in Gaza," he explained.

The US State Department said it had awarded USD 121 million to UNRWA in the current fiscal year, and only USD 300,000 of the funds remaining allocated to the agency. Washington usually gives UNRWA between USD 300 million-400 million per year.

UNRWA last week warned they might have been forced to stop operations by the end of February if funding was not continued, after the United States and other important donors stopped funding.

Israel has accused 12 of 13,000 agency staff in Gaza of involvement in a Hamas attack that Israel says killed 1,200 people, triggering an Israeli attack that has killed more than 27,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza authorities.

An Israeli official told Reuters the Foreign Ministry had assigned a task force to draft a UNRWA replacement proposal, with the candidates WFP and USAID in Washington.

Washington supports UNRWA for their "important work" as a major aid agency for Palestinians, but wants to see "real results" from UNRWA's investigation into Israel's claims, Patel said, but declined to say when the US would make the decision to restart funding.

"We believe that we can continue to do important work through other NGOs and other partners and, simultaneously, we will continue to hold talks with donor countries regarding UNRWA support," Patel said.