UK, France and Germany Reiterate Concern over Israel Blocking Contact with UNRWA

FILED - 21 January 2025, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians receive emergency food parcels from The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) center. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
FILED - 21 January 2025, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians receive emergency food parcels from The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) center. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
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UK, France and Germany Reiterate Concern over Israel Blocking Contact with UNRWA

FILED - 21 January 2025, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians receive emergency food parcels from The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) center. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
FILED - 21 January 2025, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians receive emergency food parcels from The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) center. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa

Britain, France and Germany on Friday reiterated their "grave concern" over Israel implementing a law forbidding any contact between its officials and UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA.
"We urge the government of Israel to work with international partners, including the UN, to ensure continuity of operations," the joint statement from the three nations, published by the British government, said.

“No other entity or UN Agency currently has the capacity or infrastructure to replace UNRWA’s mandate and experience,” the statement added.

The three countries also asked the Israeli government “to abide by its international obligations and live up to its responsibility to ensure full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian assistance and the provision of basic services to the civilian population.”

UNRWA said on Friday that if its humanitarian work in Gaza is forced to halt, it would put a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas at risk.
"If UNRWA is not allowed to continue to bring and distribute supplies, then the fate of this very fragile ceasefire is going to be at risk and is going to be in jeopardy," Juliette Touma, director of communications of UNRWA, told a Geneva press briefing.
For now its work in Gaza and elsewhere continues despite an Israeli ban that was due to take effect on Jan. 30, she added.



US Aid Cuts Force UNICEF to Scale Back Lebanon Nutrition Programs

A medic from the UNICEF carries a cooler box containing polio vaccine arrives at a camp for displaced people in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
A medic from the UNICEF carries a cooler box containing polio vaccine arrives at a camp for displaced people in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
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US Aid Cuts Force UNICEF to Scale Back Lebanon Nutrition Programs

A medic from the UNICEF carries a cooler box containing polio vaccine arrives at a camp for displaced people in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
A medic from the UNICEF carries a cooler box containing polio vaccine arrives at a camp for displaced people in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on February 23, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

US aid cuts have forced the UN children's agency UNICEF to suspend or scale back many programs in Lebanon, with more than half of children under the age of two experiencing severe food poverty in the country's east, an official said on Friday.

"We have been forced to suspend or cut back or drastically reduce many of our programs and that includes nutrition programs," UNICEF's deputy representative in Lebanon, Ettie Higgins, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Beirut.