UNRWA Says Fuel and Humanitarian Aid Stolen From Gaza Compound

Jerusalem, 16 October, 2023 (TPS) -- The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the UN agency which supports Palestinian refugees, said on Monday that equipment had been taken from its facility in Gaza, where security cameras covering the entrance and exit “were damaged further to blasts from the conflict in previous days and ceased to operate.”

UNRWA “received reports that yesterday a group of people with trucks purporting to be from the Ministry of Health of the de facto authorities in Gaza removed fuel and medical equipment from the agency’s compound in Gaza City,” it stated.

“Our staff were compelled to evacuate UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City on a few hours’ notice during the night of Friday, Oct. 13,” it added. “Since then, UNRWA has had no access to the compound and no additional details about the removal of the assets. UNRWA fuel and other types of material are kept for strictly humanitarian purposes—any other use is strongly condemned.”

UNRWA didn’t mention Hamas by name, but an official Israeli Foreign Ministry social media account stated that “Even UNRWA is now saying that Hamas terrorists in Gaza are stealing emergency supplies and gas which are needed to help Gazan civilians.”

“Or in other words,” wrote Israel Katz, the Israeli energy and infrastructure minister, “Hamas is robbing the ‘humanitarian aid’ to the Palestinian people. There’s no reason to give them anything until we eliminate Nazi Hamas.”

Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department allocated more than $220 million for UNRWA, despite materials that glorify terrorism and antisemitism in schools associated with the UN body. Antisemitic UNRWA educational materials were also singled out in of US legislation recently in House and Senate appropriations bills.