No agency can “replace” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in helping the population of the Gaza Strip, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Gaza Strip Sigrid Kaag warned on Tuesday.

“There is no organization in any way capable of replacing or substituting the enormous capacity, the structure of UNRWA and its knowledge of the people of Gaza,” he told reporters at UN headquarters after the closed-door meeting of the Security Council, and following the indictment of 12 UNRWA staff for involvement in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

In the territory of the Gaza Strip under Israeli siege and plagued by an acute humanitarian crisis, entire neighborhoods have been destroyed by shelling that has driven 1.7 million Palestinians, according to the UN, out of a total population of 2.4 million, to flee their homes. .

But Unrwa’s civilian aid operations have been under threat since last weekend, when Israel charged 12 of its 30,000 regional staff with involvement in the deadly October 7 attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Twelve countries — including the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan — have announced the suspension of aid to UNRWA.

A closed-door meeting of these major donors is scheduled later that day (local time) at UN headquarters in New York, at the initiative of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in an effort to continue funding to the agency.

“Without this funding, the outlook for UNRWA and the millions of people it helps is very bleak,” the UN chief’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said on Monday.

Unrwa has dismissed most of the employees named in the October 7 attack and promised an investigation. “Any employee involved in a terrorist act will be held accountable,” Dujarric assured.