‘People will die’: Hundreds of thousands of lives at risk in Gaza after Biden pauses UNRWA funding

Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza are starving as a result of Israel’s war against Hamas, according to aid agencies on the ground. But an even greater number of Palestinian lives may soon be at risk due to a decision by the US and its allies to freeze funding to the primary aid agency operating in the territory, following reports that a small number of employees were involved in the October 7 attacks.

Now, the agency has warned it may run out of money as early as this month, a worst-case scenario that aid agencies have warned could cause widespread famine and death.

“They will die of hunger, they will die because they don’t have the insulin that UNRWA brings in, or they will die because a woman had a complicated childbirth and there was no UNRWA midwife to help her,” said Juliette Touma, director of communications at the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.

The fate of Gaza’s two million people has long been inextricably tied to UNRWA. Even before the war, it provided the basic necessities for people to survive in the blockaded territory, such as food, medicine and fuel. But today, like the population it serves, it is battling for survival.

The agency has struggled to operate effectively in Gaza since the beginning of the war — which was launched by Israel in response to a surprise Hamas attack on 7 October that killed 1,200 people. The agency received just half of the funds it needed to meet the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the war. Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries and widespread bombing across the strip have made delivering aid almost impossible, and at least 152 of its staffers have been killed in the bombardment, according to the agency.

UNRWA