[Opinion] ‘Independent’ Aid Orgs In Gaza Have Been Hijacked By Hamas
[Excerpts]
Most people probably believe that Gaza is full of international aid organizations. After all, dozens of aid NGOs from around the world – such as Norwegian Refugee Council and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) – as well as UN agencies like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) operate in Gaza and are quite visible in the media.
The commonplace image is of aid agencies full of altruistic and courageous staff from France, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, or Canada, working on the ground as directors, teachers, doctors, translators, and other jobs to provide for the humanitarian needs of the local population.
But the reality is very different.
Technically, it is true that plenty of international NGOs and UN agencies are operating in Gaza, many subsisting on funding from Western governments. But, there is no UN agency or international NGO that works “independently” in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Consider UNRWA, which is supposed to “deliver education, health and mental health care, relief and social services, microcredit and emergency assistance” in Gaza. The UN does not send large international missions to run these services. According to UNRWA’s 2021 Annual Report, only 0.1 percent of staff in Gaza (13 out of nearly 12,000) were not locals – 99.9 percent were Palestinians. In all the areas where UNRWA operates, international staff comprised a meager 0.7 percent of the agency.
