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Thirty MEPs request the UN to abandon Unrwa

by AI | 31.Jan 2025 | Europe in brief AI

Thirty members of the European Parliament have asked the UN to end the operations of UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, which they accused of helping Hamas hide Israeli hostages.

A man walks past a destroyed building that housed a clinic of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Jabalia Palestinian refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, on January 19, 2025, after a ceasefire agreement was implemented. (Photo: Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Strasbourg (France) – The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, should end the action of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), claim thirty European deputies in a letter they sent to him, AFP learned on Thursday.

“Following the long-awaited release of the Israeli hostages held by the terrorist organization Hamas, the press alerted the international community to the fact that these hostages were being held captive in the premises of Unrwa, an agency for which you are responsible,” writes French MEP Céline Imart in this letter dated January 27, co-signed by 29 of her colleagues from right-wing and extreme right-wing parties.

The UN agency “helped a terrorist organization to hide hostages, which is politically, morally, and legally highly reprehensible,” she claims, before asking Antonio Guterres to put “an end to Unrwa’s operations,” in order not to “tarnish” the “values” of the UN.

Israel ended Unrwa’s action on its territory on Thursday, as a result of a law passed in October. This law does not prohibit the agency’s activity in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. (January 30, 2025)