The UN’s humanitarian agency in Gaza is coming under threat from a new congressional measure in the United States. Eight Congress members have co-sponsored House Congressional Resolution 29, which threatens to pull funding for the United Nations Relief Works Agency, or UNRWA. The bill says UNRWA has links to terror groups. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza rely on UNRWA for survival. Israel attacked several UNRWA facilities, including schools and aid depots, during its three-week assault on Gaza. On Wednesday, UNRWA spokesperson Christopher Gunness renewed calls for an independent probe of an Israeli attack on one of the schools.

UNRWA spokesperson Christopher Gunness: “The Israeli army at first said there were militants inside installations. They later had to retract that, and at the same time the IDF and other Israeli spokespeople were saying that there were militants inside our installations. Israeli officials in our coordination meetings were saying they knew very well that there weren’t. So there’s been a flipping and a flopping, and with each flip, with each flop, the credibility of these Israeli spokespeople is hanging in rags. That’s why we say there has to be an impartial investigation to find out what really happened.”