Report: Agency aiding Palestinian refugees needs to address neutrality

An interim report by an independent group investigating the beleaguered U.N. agency supporting Palestinian refugees in Gaza has identified “critical areas” that need to be addressed to ensure its neutrality.

The group chaired by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna presented its interim report to Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, U.N. associate spokesperson Florencia Soto Niño-Martinez told reporters Wednesday.

Guterres ordered the independent review of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees known as UNRWA on Feb. 5 after Israel alleged that 12 members of its 13,000 staff in Gaza participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that sparked the Israel-Hamas war.

The group has found “that UNRWA has in place a significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the humanitarian principle of neutrality,” Soto Niño-Martinez said. “The group has also identified critical areas that still need to be addressed.”

She gave no other details but said the review group “will now develop concrete and realistic recommendations on how to address these critical areas to strengthen and improve UNRWA.”

Soto Niño-Martinez reaffirmed that the group’s final report is due on April 20 and will be made public.

Colonna has been conducting the review with three research organizations: the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Norway and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

A separate review of the Israeli allegations is being conducted by the U.N.’s internal watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services. More than a dozen countries suspended funding for UNRWA following the Israeli allegations.