Gaza: Enabling independent human­i­tarian aid quickly, reforming UNWRA

What is needed to quickly and indepen­dently provide supplies for the people in Gaza? And what should become of UNRWA? Kerstin Müller, Senior Fellow at the Center for Liberal Modernity, on the current situation in Gaza and the debates of the “Middle East Network — Ways out of War, Terror and Occupation” coordi­nated by LibMod.

Israel’s longest war against Hamas in Gaza has lasted more than 600 days since the Hamas terror attack on 7 October, which left around 1200 Israeli civilians dead, numerous wounded and trauma­tized. The terrorist organi­zation is still holding 55 of the 251 hostages kidnapped on 7 October captive, with only 20 of them presumably still alive. The war in Gaza has so far only been inter­rupted by a ceasefire from January 19 to March 2, 2025, which resulted in the release of 33 Israeli hostages and hundreds of Pales­tinian prisoners from Israeli jails. The USA, Qatar and Egypt are currently negoti­ating a new ceasefire and hostage agreement. So far, however, without success.

As a result of the war, the UN speaks of more than 54,000 dead and around 123,000 injured on the Pales­tinian side. More than 770 Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Acute hunger crisis in Gaza

After Hamas did not agree to an extension of the ceasefire on March 1, Israel has blocked the import of food into the Gaza Strip since March 2 and denied inter­na­tional personnel access. The background to this is Hamas’ involvement with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Pales­tinian Refugees (UNRWA) and, according to the Israeli government, the fact that Hamas continues to finance itself by stealing and selling inter­na­tional food aid. While the former has been proven by two UN commis­sions of inquiry, the extent of the latter has not yet been proven.

One conse­quence of the ongoing war and the weeks-long blockade of food supplies is an acute hunger crisis in Gaza. According to a recent IPC report (Integrated Food Security Classi­fi­cation Report), the entire population of 2.2 million is affected by food insecurity and one in four is at risk of starvation; 9,000 children have already been treated for malnu­trition and many have already died.

Chaos in the supply of people by the private foundation GHF

Under inter­na­tional and probably also American pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu decided on 19 May to resume the supply of food through a private Israeli-American organi­zation, the Gaza Human­i­tarian Foundation (GHF), but under protest from the national-extremist wing of his government. The GHF initially began distrib­uting food parcels via 3 central distri­b­ution centers in the south and then in the center of Gaza. This is a major change in the system, as aid was previ­ously distributed decen­tralized to prevent a possible flood of thousands of people. This also means that supplies to people in the north are not guaranteed. According to the GHF, only up to 25 truck­loads per day could be distributed so far, meaning that only a small part of the 2.2 million inhab­i­tants of the Gaza Strip could be supplied. In addition, the food is dry and has to be prepared with water and on cooking stoves, which also requires fuel. Only a few people still have access to both, as the communal kitchens have also all been closed. In the period before the blockade, around 500–600 truck­loads arrived in the Gaza Strip every day. Due to the new central­ization of distri­b­ution and the great hunger of the people, the centers were completely overrun in the first few days. Chaos reigned and there were deaths and injuries, so that the GHF suspended distri­b­ution for a few days at the beginning of June.

Human­i­tarian aid must be neutral, impartial and independent

Apart from this, the concept envisages providing aid to no more than 1.2 million, i.e. only 60% of the people in Gaza. What is to happen to the remaining 1 million or more people remains unclear. In view of the fact that parts of the Netanyahu government openly speak of “taking, occupying and settling the Gaza Strip with full force” and “not letting in any human­i­tarian aid” (according to Finance Minister Smotrich), doubts remain as to whether the intended limited supply is not part of a government reset­tlement plan and whether the food blockade is being used as a weapon of war. The way in which human­i­tarian aid is distributed by a private company, supported by the Israeli military, is also sharply criti­cized by UN organi­za­tions because human­i­tarian aid should follow the principles of “neutrality, impar­tiality and indepen­dence”. These principles are disre­garded by the distri­b­ution by a private company, which in turn is protected by private security companies that have to work closely with the IDF.

At the same time, it is clear that the UN organi­zation UNRWA, which was previ­ously respon­sible for the care of refugees in Gaza, has lost its credi­bility due to its infil­tration and involvement with Hamas and can no longer be described as “neutral”. UNRWA employees were involved in the crimes of October 7. However, other inter­na­tional organi­za­tions, such as the Red Cross and the World Food Program, also refuse to cooperate with the private company GHF in Gaza.

A quick and independent solution is needed

A quick solution must therefore be found that enables the impartial supply of the necessary food to the people in Gaza. It must be ensured that the aid reaches the people directly and safely and does not end up in the hands of Hamas. Inter­na­tional aid organi­za­tions such as the World Food Program, the Red Cross and OCHA are credible and have decades of experience in providing aid to people in need in crisis and war regions. They are therefore better suited to providing aid to the people in Gaza instead of UNRWA than a private company like the GHF.

Due to the tense situation in Gaza, the “Middle East Network — Israel and Palestine: Ways out of War, Terror and Occupation”, coordi­nated by the Center for Liberal Modernity, has focused on perspec­tives for ending the war and the hunger crisis in Gaza as well as current problems of UNRWA. The network consists of Israelis, Pales­tinians and experts from the region.

Problems with UNRWA

From the network’s perspective, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East faces numerous struc­tural problems. These include an unusual defin­ition of the refugee status. Unlike the defin­i­tions used by other UN organi­za­tions such as the UNHCR, the Pales­tinian refugee status received by those who fled in 1948 is passed down through gener­a­tions, resulting in 5.9 million regis­tered Pales­tinian refugees today. This hinders the integration of refugees in host countries such as Lebanon, politi­cizes the right of return, and makes a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Pales­tinian conflict more difficult to achieve. In addition to providing human­i­tarian aid to refugees, UNRWA has taken on numerous unrelated tasks, such as providing education and health care, as well as waste disposal and the granting of micro­credits through its own facil­ities, which has led to unnec­essary dupli­cation of struc­tures in the Pales­tinian territories.

How deeply is UNRWA involved with Hamas?

After the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, it became clear that UNRWA employees from Gaza were involved in the terrorist attacks as they were also active members of Hamas. Following that, the UN attempted to list struc­tural reforms in the Colonna Report, led by Catherine Colonna, the former French foreign minister. However, the report disre­gards Hamas’ entan­glement with UNRWA. Another internal UN report, the OIOS Report (UN Office of Internal Oversight Services), focused on the involvement of individual members. Conse­quently, only 18 members were dismissed for involvement in the terrorist act on October 7 and ties to Hamas. It remains unclear to this day how deeply Hamas is involved with or entangled with UNRWA employees at various levels of the organi­zation. Never­theless, numerous countries, resumed payments to UNRWA in October 2024 after these initial reports were presented. This includes Germany, which is UNRWA’s second largest contributor and has been supporting UNRWA for decades.

The rapid resumption of donations to UNRWA immedi­ately after the UN reports were presented was primarily due to the still extremely difficult human­i­tarian situation in Gaza. Never­theless, the Middle East Network considers this to be a missed oppor­tunity and is calling on the new German government to go ahead with the necessary clari­fi­cation and implement struc­tural reforms. The agree­ments reached in the coalition agreement should be implemented.

The members of the network are convinced, that there must be a compre­hensive inves­ti­gation into UNRWA and its involvement with Hamas. Urgently needed reforms must be addressed. This requires that the current UNRWA leadership, i.e., Lazzarini and his team, who have failed to prevent the increasing infil­tration of UNRWA by Hamas for years, to step down and clear the way for real renewal. A compre­hensive inves­ti­gation into UNRWA’s involvement with Hamas and necessary reforms resulting from there can only be credibly met by a new team.

Make payments to UNRWA dependent on reforms

To this end, the new German government should, as announced in the coalition agreement, suspend payments to UNRWA in full or at least in part until the team has been replaced and the path towards a compre­hensive inves­ti­gation has been cleared. However, it should be ensured that this does not interrupt the provision of human­i­tarian aid to the people of Gaza. The Israeli government should lift the ongoing food blockade and look for a solution that allows inter­na­tional organi­za­tions to distribute human­i­tarian aid to the population in Gaza.

Specif­i­cally, the following short‑, medium‑, and long-term measures for reforming UNRWA are proposed:

■ In the short term: In Gaza, however, a post war recon­struction process could lay the foundation for trans­ferring UNRWA’s tasks to other organi­za­tions. Some human­i­tarian aid is already being provided by other organi­za­tions, such as the World Food Program.
In contrary it is unreal­istic, especially in the West Bank, to replace quickly large parts of the quasi-govern­mental services provided by UNRWA through other organi­za­tions. For example, the World Food Program has no experience with education or health. UNRWA must therefore undergo a funda­mental reform process in which the strategic use of financial resources and inter­na­tional oversight play a central role. This cooper­ation should be expanded to ensure that the population receives human­i­tarian aid.

■ In the medium term, struc­tural and organi­za­tional reforms should enable other inter­na­tional organi­za­tions to take over some of the services currently provided by UNRWA in the West Bank. This mainly applies to the extra tasks which UNRWA has taken on, such as schooling and important roles in the healthcare and social systems, as well as extra­neous tasks such as waste disposal and micro­credit allocation (UNRWA maintains 706 schools and 140 medical facil­ities.) This will require consid­erable investment.

■ In the long term, UNRWA services in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank should be trans­ferred to the Pales­tinian Authority (PA). In Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, the respective central govern­ments should take over these tasks. A political solution to the conflict, such as a two-state settlement, will resolve the refugee issue in general. This will also render the role of UNRWA obsolete in the long term, and it will have to be taken over by other inter­na­tional or local organizations.

*  The article summa­rizes discus­sions on ways out of the dramatic human­i­tarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, which were held among Israelis, Pales­tinians, and experts from other countries. (“Network Middle East – Options for a Political Solution to the Israeli-Pales­tinian Conflict”) The project is coordi­nated by LibMod and led by Kerstin Müller, former Minister of State at the German Foreign Office. The figures quoted by UN agencies on the number of deaths in the Gaza Strip are based mainly on infor­mation provided by the Hamas-controlled “Ministry of Health.” They do not differ­en­tiate between Hamas fighters killed and civilian casualties. The infor­mation provided by the Israeli-American aid organi­zation GHF on the food parcels distributed cannot be verified either. All this under­scores the need to place human­i­tarian aid to the population in Gaza in independent inter­na­tional hands as quickly as possible and to find a political way out of this war. (Ed.)