The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has chosen a team to check and review the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). UNRWA helps Palestinians in Gaza with things like food and shelter.
An outside review will start on February 14. At the same time, the UN will also investigate claims that UNRWA staff were part of Hamasâ October 7 attacks.
Catherine Colonna, who used to be in charge of France’s relationships with other countries, will be in charge of looking at something and will work with three research groups: the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, the Chr. Norwegian Michelsen Institute and Danish Institute for Human Rights.
The group will check if the Agency is doing its best to stay neutral and deal with serious problems. Guterres said that Israeli help is important for the investigation to work well.
UNRWA fired some workers because of the allegations. The United States and other countries have stopped giving money to the organization because of the crisis in Gaza. The agency said it will probably have to stop helping people by the end of February because it’s not getting enough money. This will make the situation worse for the people in Gaza and other places where they help Palestinian refugees.