Erdogan says UNRWA to open office in Turkey, calls for more support for agency
The United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, will open an office in Ankara, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, urging Muslim countries to give the agency more support after “Israel” banned it last year.
Addressing foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, Erdogan said opening an Ankara UNRWA office would deepen Turkey’s support for the agency.
“We must not allow UNRWA, which plays an irreplaceable role in terms of taking care of Palestinian refugees, to be paralysed by Israel. We expect our organisation and each member state to provide financial and moral support to UNRWA to thwart Israel’s games,” Erdogan said.
A Turkish diplomatic source said Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini were expected to sign an accord on the sidelines of the OIC meeting in Istanbul on establishing the office.
Turkey has given UNRWA $10 million a year between 2023 and 2025. In 2024, it also transferred $2 million and sent another $3 million from its AFAD disaster management authority.
Previously, aid to Gaza’s 2.3 million residents had been distributed mainly by U.N. agencies such as UNRWA, with thousands of staff at hundreds of sites across the enclave.
Separately, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said on Friday that “Israel” is facilitating a deadly and chaotic aid distribution system in Gaza, turning aid centers into hotspots of violence and exploitation.
“At least 620 Palestinians have been killed or injured near aid distribution centres set up by Israel exclusively in central and southern Gaza, while the north remains cut off,” the organisation said on X.
According to Euro-Med Monitor, the centers are not safe zones but sites of repeated bloodshed. “Thousands of Palestinians have been killed or injured at Israeli-run aid centres in Gaza, while proxy gangs operating on Israel’s behalf loot aid convoys and terrorize civilians,” it said.
The U.N. has rejected the U.S.-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s operation, saying its distribution work is inadequate, dangerous, and violates humanitarian impartiality principles. Meanwhile, it warned that Gaza’s humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate, with growing concerns about famine, displacement, and violence surrounding aid deliveries.
