OSLO: The Norwegian government said Thursday that it would contribute $24 million to the UN agency that helps looks after Palestinian refugees, the same day that Israel banned the group from operating on Israeli territory.
“Gaza is in ruins, and UNRWA’s help is more necessary than ever,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement. “It is extremely dramatic for Palestine that Israeli laws come into force that in practice can prevent UNRWA from working.”
Starting Thursday, UNRWA is banned from operating on Israeli soil and contact between it and Israeli officials is forbidden. Israel’s supreme court rejected late Wednesday a challenge to the ban.
UNRWA has provided support for Palestinian refugees around the Middle East for over 70 years, and it says it has brought in 60 percent of the food aid that has reached Gaza since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas in 2023.
But Israeli officials have repeatedly accused it of being a cover for militant groups and undermining the country’s security. The hostility intensified in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, with accusations that a small number of UNRWA employees participated in the assault.
A series of investigations, including one led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA, but said Israel had not provided evidence for its headline allegation.
Many donors cut their support for UNRWA following the accusations, though almost all have resumed their funding.
Relations between Norway and Israel have worsened in recent years, especially after the Scandinavian country recognized a Palestinian state last May along with Spain and Ireland.
Norway says sending $24m to UNRWA after Israel ban
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Norway says sending $24m to UNRWA after Israel ban
- “Gaza is in ruins, and UNRWA’s help is more necessary than ever,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said
- “It is extremely dramatic for Palestine that Israeli laws come into force that in practice can prevent UNRWA from working“
WHO alarmed by health workers, civilians ‘forcibly detained’ in Sudan
- The WHO counts and verifies attacks on health care, though it does not attribute blame as it is not an investigation agency
GENEVA: The World Health Organization voiced alarm Tuesday at reports that more than 70 health workers and around 5,000 civilians were being detained in Nyala in southwestern Sudan.
Since April 2023, Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a brutal conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million more and devastated infrastructure.
“We are concerned by reports from Nyala, the capital of Sudan’s South Darfur state, that more than 70 health care workers are being forcibly detained along with about 5,000 civilians,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
“According to the Sudan Doctors Network, the detainees are being held in cramped and unhealthy conditions, and there are reports of disease outbreaks,” the UN health agency chief said.
The RSF and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North faction allied earlier this year, forming a coalition based in Nyala.
“WHO is gathering more information on the detentions and conditions of those being held. The situation is complicated by the ongoing insecurity,” said Tedros.
“The reported detentions of health workers and thousands more people is deeply concerning. Health workers and civilians should be protected at all times and we call for their safe and unconditional release.”
The WHO counts and verifies attacks on health care, though it does not attribute blame as it is not an investigation agency.
In total, the WHO has recorded 65 attacks on health care in Sudan this year, resulting in 1,620 deaths and 276 injuries. Of those attacks, 54 impacted personnel, 46 impacted facilities and 33 impacted patients.
Earlier Tuesday, UN rights chief Volker Turk said he was “alarmed by the further intensification in hostilities” in the Kordofan region in southern Sudan.
“I urge all parties to the conflict and states with influence to ensure an immediate ceasefire and to prevent atrocities,” he said.
“Medical facilities and personnel have specific protection against attack under international humanitarian law,” Turk added.
