(31 Jan 2024) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: ++PRELIMINARY SCRIPT++ Oslo - 31 January 2024 1. SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council: "If there is time for the donors now to reverse the catastrophic decision to defund the main deliverer of humanitarian relief to the Gazans in a time when they are under bombardment like no other civilian community anywhere in the world, and I think It's telling that all the other UN agencies, all of the non-governmental organizations, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, say that funding de-funding UNRWA is -- means a collapse of humanitarian work among Palestinian women and children in their hour of greatest need when they're under this relentless, indiscriminate bombardment and when there is so little capacity for humanitarian relief." ++BLACK FRAMES++ 2. SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council: "UNRWA has been the response for the needs of the Palestinians. And now they are completely defunded by so many nations. It's bad. It has to be reversed. It would be catastrophic as all of the other aid organizations say, for the people of Gaza." ++BLACK FRAMES++ 3. SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council: "The allegation from Israel that a dozen UNRWA employees participated in the horrendous attack on Israel on the 7th of October where countless civilians were killed, these are very serious allegations. That's why UNRWA did everything right. They fired these people. On these mere allegations, they have initiated an independent investigation of everything surrounding that potential betrayal of all of our ideals by a small group of employees in the organization. And they're also asked for an external review of their ways of operations. So they did everything right. And I would say that, to these donors also, perhaps Israel should do the same because there are countless examples of also - on that side. Now Israeli soldiers and others are shooting at civilians with white flag, during indiscriminate bombardment, etc. But I haven't seen the same donors say "well we'll suspend all funding for Israel while they investigate what has happened."" ++BLACK FRAMES++ 4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council: "I'm glad the Secretary-General of the U.N. was very clear. The humanitarian coordinator, Martin Griffiths, was very clear from the outset. Yes, the rest of the UN is too slow, too often. And they are not up there fighting for humanitarian principles like we are in NRC. We had 28 NGOs join us on Monday. There was just after the news broke and we also declared that this was a reckless defunding of a sister organization. I feel we need to have one for all and all for one." ++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++ STORYLINE: An aid agency on Wednesday joined an array of U.N. organizations to warn of “catastrophic" consequences for the people of Gaza if key donor countries don’t resume funding for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the main lifeline for people in the besieged territory. Jan Egeland, former head of the U.N. humanitarian agency and secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said "de-funding UNRWA is -- means a collapse of humanitarian work among Palestinian women and children in their hour of greatest need." The United States and more than a dozen other countries have announced plans to suspend contributions to UNRWA after Israel alleged that 12 of its thousands of workers participated in the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/3e97814ef973474597f1b95c58228223