Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 23rd April. UN head António Guterres on Monday issued an appeal to “actively support” the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, added that he accepted the final findings of an independent probe into the organization, launched serious unconfirmed allegations of UNRWA collusion with Hamas fighters and as part of efforts to assess whether the agency was doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality.
The final report led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, was released later on Monday.
Ms. Colonna spoke with reporters in New York as Chair of the Independent Review Group on UNRWA.
“The Secretary-General accepts the recommendations contained in Ms. Colonna’s report,” UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“He has agreed with (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini that UNRWA – with the Secretary-General’s support will establish an action plan to implement the recommendations contained in the Final Report,” the statement said
The statement concluded that “moving forward, the Secretary-General appeals to all stakeholders to actively support UNRWA, as it is a lifeline for Palestine refugees in the region.”
The independent review group presented interim report findings and recommendations to the UN Secretary-General four weeks ago.
UN spokesman’s office noted that that tese included evidence that UNRWA had “a significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the humanitarian principle of neutrality”, although “critical areas still need to be addressed,”.
The review panel working with respected research organizations the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, the Chr. Michelsen Institute and the Danish Institute for Human Rights – announced that it would proceed with developing concrete and realistic recommendations to strengthen and improve the agency.
The development came after reports of Israeli bombardment across Gaza at the weekend and concerning levels of violence in the West Bank.
UNFPA reported that in Rafah on Monday that a baby had been saved by emergency Caesarean section after its mother was critically injured in an airstrike and later died.
Dominic Allen, UNFPA Representative for Palestine said “Doctors in Gaza were able to save the life of the baby from the womb of the mother as she passed away from the head injury she’d sustained.”
The mother was 30 weeks pregnant when she died, along with her husband and the baby’s siblings, Mr. Allen noted.
UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health Tlaleng Mofokeng highlighted the huge toll on mental health that recent months and decades of violence have taken on the enclave’s besieged population and medical professionals.
“Imagine living under the constant anticipation of a bomb or a gun, or being shot while you’re trying to get food or water or play. That is in itself a form of violence,” said Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng.
“To anticipate that your life could be extinguished in any moment and for children to grow up with that level of trauma is not normal. But for decades, that has been normalized for the people of Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
The life continues to worsen for ordinary Gazans after 7 months of constant Israeli bombardment and a ground operation, launched in response to Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel that left some 1,200 dead and more than 250 taken hostage.
UNRWA saidmthat a child dies every 10 minutes in a fresh call to end the violence and allow desperately needed humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Gazan health authorities reported over 34,000 Palestinians have been killed and some 77,000 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October.
It underscored the looming health dangers from warmer spring conditions, UNRWA expressed renewed concerns over poor waste management and disease.
Scott Anderson, Senior Deputy Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza on social media post X warned that substandard water and sanitation were far below what the population needed to stay healthy.
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