Factions protest against UNRWA in Gaza

Palestinian factions on Sunday organized a protest at UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City to coincide with a strike by the agency's employees. At a press conference, Palestinian Peoples' Party official Walid al-Awad said national and Islamist factions had held an emergency meeting "after UNRWA's presidency sent a commission to question a number of the organizations' employees in Gaza City." Al-Awad urged UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, "to operate in line with its jurisdiction authorized by the UN, which is to offer services to Palestinian refugees until they return to their homeland they were displaced from in 1948." Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Abdul-Hamid Hamad said UNRWA's questioning of employees amounted to "intelligence work." He called on UNRWA commissioner-general Filippo Grandi to end interrogations and to stop interfering in employees' basic rights. The UNRWA workers' union announced last week that it would suspend work on Sunday in protest of an investigation into the political affiliations of six employees. The union said six UNRWA employees in Gaza were recently invited to meet with the agency's leadership in Amman, but the executives turned out to be "investigators" looking into their backgrounds. UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told Ma'an that the agency "regularly reviews staff performance and compliance with rules and regulations and these meetings are related to such reviews." The UN Relief and Works Agency provides assistance to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.