BRUSSELS - The head of the UN relief agency in the Palestinian territories warned of the risk of a humanitarian and security crisis on Wednesday and urged European Union countries to give a chance to a new Hamas-led government.
Israel froze transfers of tax revenues to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority after Hamas won the Jan. 25 Palestinian election.
Karen AbuZayd, commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said she hoped the situation ‘will be corrected after the Israeli elections’ on March 28.
The humanitarian crisis would become serious if salaries were not paid as a result of the Israel action, AbuZayd told Reuters after a three-day visit to Brussels.
‘For the first time ever, we in UNRWA ran out of fuel and the bakeries in Gaza ran out of flour,’ AbuZayd said.
‘Half of the payroll is for security people who have arms ... there could be more breakdown of law and order,’ she said.
The EU agreed last month to provide a lifeline of 120 million euros to the Palestinian Authority, but has threatened to cut off links unless Hamas, whose charter commits it to the destruction of Israel, changes its policy once in government.
The United States has said it will give only humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
AbuZayd said cutting any kind of aid would have serious consequences. The definition of what is humanitarian was political, she added.
‘It is not possible to separate the consequences ... if other sorts of aid are cut there will be a stronger need for humanitarian aid,’ she said.
AbuZayd urged the international community to ‘see what the new government in Palestine is going to do, give it a little chance’, before deciding whether to cut aid.
EU foreign ministers who met on March 20 put off a decision on financial aid for the Palestinians, giving Hamas more time to act on calls to moderate its position on Israel.
The EU is the Palestinians' biggest aid donor and provided 500 million euros last year.
The EU formally launched on Monday the payment of some 64 million euros of EU funds to UNRWA, part of the short-term 120 million euros cash lifeline announced in February.