United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (L) and Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, leave the room after giving a joint press conference following their meeting at the New Administrative Capital east of Cairo on March 24, 2024. (Photo by Khaled Desouki / AFP)
Amman: United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Monday defended the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, describing it as a "lifeline of hope and dignity".
During a visit to the Wihdat refugee camp in the Jordanian capital Amman, Guterres said it would be "cruel and incomprehensible" to halt UNRWA's vital services to Palestinian refugees across the region.
His remarks come as the agency faces a financing crisis after several key donor countries cut off funding following Israeli accusations that several UNRWA staff in Gaza were involved in the October 7 attack.
On Sunday, the chief of the UN agency, Philippe Lazzarini, said that Israel had definitively barred it from making aid deliveries in northern Gaza, where the threat of famine is highest.
The agency employs some 30,000 people across the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, providing healthcare, education and other basic services.
"We must strive to keep the one-of-a-kind services that UNRWA provides flowing because that keeps hope flowing," Guterres said during his visit to the camp.
"In a darkening world, UNRWA is the one ray of light for millions of people. I see that hope here. Now more than ever, we must not take away that hope."
He also sought to "honour the 171 women and men of UNRWA who have been killed in Gaza -- the largest number of deaths of UN staff in our history".
