Group of US senate Democrats urge immediate reinstatement of UNRWA funding

In response to the US administration halting funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency following as of yet unproven accusations that several of the agency employees took part in Hamas's 7 October attack, a group of Democrats in the US Senate are urging for the reinstatement of funding to UNRWA and generally increase humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

The initiative, announced earlier this month, is being led by Senators Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Chris Coons of Delaware and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. 

In their letter, they emphasise the severity of the humanitarian crisis and the urgency for access to life-saving aid, dismissing recent accusations of theft of aid by Hamas.

"The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is dire, and the civilian suffering is at an unacceptable and staggering level. Ninety-three per cent of Palestinians in Gaza are facing crisis levels of hunger. Eighty-five per cent of the population is displaced. Seventy per cent of those killed are women and children," the senators wrote.

"While the scale of the crisis is massive, the humanitarian assistance that is entering Gaza is just a fraction of what is needed to save lives. Since aid operations resumed on 21 October, delivery of life-saving assistance to Gaza continues to be hampered, despite no evidence of Hamas theft or diversion of humanitarian assistance provided via the United Nations or international non-governmental organisations (INGOs)," the letter continued.

To facilitate the transfer and distribution of aid, the senators outline steps for opening and accessing border crossings. They noted that a humanitarian pause in late November allowed crucial assistance to enter the Palestinian enclave.

"The largest daily amount of humanitarian aid entered Gaza on 28 November, during the seven-day humanitarian pause. Additional and longer humanitarian pauses are needed to enable a surge of assistance to enter Gaza and the safe movement of goods and people within Gaza," they wrote.

"A humanitarian pause will also allow people to safely return to their homes in north Gaza. These steps will not solve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but taken together, they will alleviate the suffering for millions of people," the senators wrote, emphasising that they see their request as bare minimum given the extent of the crisis. 

In a separate initiative, around the same time as the letter from Senate Democrats, a bipartisan group of around 30 House lawmakers (mainly Republicans) wrote a letter to the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service requesting information on US-based charities with accusations of ties to Hamas.

"We are concerned that there are US-based organisations with ties to Hamas that were able to evade the anti-terrorism efforts of the IRS and gain tax-exempt status," they wrote in their letter, according to a report by Jewish Insider.