{"id":39353,"date":"2024-09-14T10:29:59","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T04:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=39353"},"modified":"2025-04-24T08:48:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T03:18:30","slug":"united-nations-refugee-agency-for-palestinians-unrwa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/united-nations-refugee-agency-for-palestinians-unrwa\/","title":{"rendered":"United Nations&#8217; Refugee Agency for Palestinians (UNRWA)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in news?<\/li>\n<li>What is United Nations&#8217; refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA)?<\/li>\n<li>News Summary: United Nations&#8217; refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA)<\/li>\n<li>What has Israel accused UNRWA of?<\/li>\n<li>How has UNRWA responded?<\/li>\n<li>What happens now?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in news?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>An Israeli strike on an UNRWA school-turned-shelter has killed at least 18 people and injured over a dozen others in Nuseirat, Gaza.<\/li>\n<li>UN officials have urged countries to reconsider their decision to suspend the funding for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).<\/li>\n<li>Recently, Israel accused some of the agency\u2019s staff members of involvement in the October 7 attack.<\/li>\n<li>After this, the US and eight other Western countries, which together provided more than half of UNRWA\u2019s 2022 budget, cut the money.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is United Nations&#8217; Refugee Agency for Palestinians (UNRWA)?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a <strong>subsidiary agency created by<\/strong> the <strong>United Nations (UN) General Assembly<\/strong> in 1949.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Objective<\/strong>: To provide <strong>relief, health, and education services for Palestinians who lost<\/strong> both their homes and their <strong>means of livelihood during<\/strong> the <strong>Arab-Israeli wars<\/strong> following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.<\/li>\n<li>Headquarters:\n<ul>\n<li>Beginning operations in 1950, UNRWA was <strong>originally headquartered in Beirut<\/strong> but was moved to Vienna in 1978.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Following<\/strong> the conclusion of the <strong>Oslo Accords<\/strong> in the early 1990s, the General Assembly <strong>moved the agency to the Gaza Strip<\/strong> in 1996 to demonstrate the General Assembly\u2019s commitment to the Arab-Israeli peace process.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>In the absence of a solution to the Palestine refugee problem, the <strong>General Assembly<\/strong> has <strong>repeatedly renewed UNRWA&#8217;s mandate<\/strong>, most recently <strong>extending it until<\/strong> 30 June <strong>2026<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Services<\/strong>: The agency\u2019s services encompass <strong>education, health care, relief and social services<\/strong>, <strong>camp infrastructure<\/strong> and improvement, <strong>microfinance,<\/strong> and emergency assistance, including in times of armed conflict<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fields of operations<\/strong>: It provides services in its <strong>five fields<\/strong> of operations: <strong>Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip, <\/strong>and the <strong>West Bank,including<\/strong> the <strong>East of Jerusalem.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It <strong>supports<\/strong> more than <strong>five million registered Palestinian refugees, and their patrilineal descendants, <\/strong>who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 Palestine war, as well as those who fled or were expelled during and following the 1967 Six Day war.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Funding<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>It is funded <strong>almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN Member States<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>UNRWA <strong>also receives<\/strong> some <strong>funding from the Regular Budget of the UN<\/strong>, which is used mostly for international staffing costs.<\/li>\n<li>Its <strong>chief officer<\/strong>, the <strong>commissioner-general<\/strong>\u2014the <strong>only leader of a UN agency to report directly to the General Assembly<\/strong>\u2014is appointed by the UN secretary-general with the approval of an Advisory Commission<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>News Summary: United Nations&#8217; Refugee Agency for Palestinians (UNRWA)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Recently, United Nations (UN) officials urged countries to reconsider their decision to pause funding for the UN agency for Palestinians.<\/li>\n<li>It also said that any staff found involved in Hamas&#8217; attack on Israel would be punished and warned that aid for some two million people in Gaza was at stake.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What has Israel accused UNRWA of?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Israel has alleged that 12 staff members of UNRWA were involved in the October 7 attack.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It has also claimed that Hamas siphons off funds given to UNRWA and fights from in and around the agency\u2019s facilities.<\/li>\n<li>Israel has alleged that Hamas tunnels are running next to or under UNRWA facilities and accuses the agency of teaching hatred of Israel in its schools.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>How has UNRWA responded?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The UNRWA has denied all the allegations, saying it has no links to Hamas.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>In the statement, UN officials said out of 12 staff members who were accused of being involved in the attack, nine have been terminated.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>One is confirmed dead and the identity of the two others is being clarified.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What happens now?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>UNRWA is crucial for the survival of people living in Gaza, which has plunged into a humanitarian crisis after the outbreak of the conflict.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The agency has been the main supplier of food, water and shelter to civilians of the enclave.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>UNRWA, however, would run out of money needed for its aid work within weeks if the funding is not restored.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What is What is Gaza strip?<\/h3>\n<p>The Gaza Strip is a 140 square mile narrow strip of land in the southwest corner of Israel. It&#8217;s located along the Mediterranean Sea and shares a border with Egypt to the south. The Gaza Strip is one of two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2) What is the United Nations (UN)?<\/h3>\n<p>The United Nations (UN) is an international organization that was established in 1945 by 51 countries. The UN&#8217;s mission is to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, and promote social progress, better living standards, and human rights.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-global\/countries-pause-funding-unrwa-9133389\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>What is UNRWA, and why have Western countries paused its funding amid Gaza war?<\/u><\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2024\/01\/1145987\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>UN<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East   is a subsidiary agency created by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1949.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}