United Nations, April 23 (RHC)-- Dennis Francis, UN General Assembly president, has said UNRWA is a “lifeline to millions of Palestine refugees” and the agency’s chief, Philippe Lazzarini, could count on his “full support.”  This comes following publication of an independent review of the UN agency following Israeli allegations of wrongdoing.

“I have been clear that the General Assembly, as the custodian of the mandate of UNRWA, bears responsibility in securing UNRWA’s future, both politically and financially,” Francis said in a post on social media.

The review of UNRWA found the agency had “established a significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the humanitarian principles, with emphasis on the principle of neutrality, and that it possesses a more developed approach to neutrality than other similar UN or NGO entities.”

For its part, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry has urged donors to restore funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) after an independent review found Israel had provided “no evidence” of its claims of wrongdoing against the agency, which is the largest provider of services in Gaza.

UNRWA says it “welcomes the findings” of the report, which confirmed it had mechanisms in place to ensure “compliance with the principle of neutrality.”

In related news, Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib has said that Belgium was “correct in continuing our support for UNRWA” after the new UN report was issued.

“The report states clearly: UNRWA is ‘irreplaceable and indispensable’ for the Palestinians,” the Belgian foreign Minister said in a post on X.

Lahbib also called on other countries that have “suspended their contributions to resume them.”  Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK and the US have yet to restore funding to UNRWA, while Germany has not restored funding for UNRWA’s work in Gaza specifically.