TEHRAN- Some Western countries, including the Israeli regime's staunchest allies, the United States and Britain, have decided to stop sending funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). 

UNRWA helps the vulnerable Palestinian refugees in the blockaded Gaza Strip and elsewhere, but Gaza is where the much-needed support is urgently required by Palestinians from the UN agency at the moment. 

The decision by the U.S. and its allies to pause funding came after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its interim ruling, which found it was "plausible" to say that the Israeli regime has embarked on a genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza. 

The United Nations’ top court in The Hague saw enough evidence provided by South Africa that it deemed Palestinians needed its protection from the Israeli military and issued six provisions calling on the regime to do everything in its power to prevent genocide. 

All these provisions will not affect the regime's war on Gaza, which branded the ICJ as a Kangaroo Court, despite attending the proceedings, but they are deeply embarrassing for the regime's Western allies, who claim to uphold the rules of international law on genocide. 

The aftermath of the ICJ ruling has seen a remarkable and speedy, yet timely, turn of events. 

The Israeli regime came up with more disinformation, which some experts say Tel Aviv had already prepared, with the help of the U.S., in anticipation of the ICJ verdict. 
The latest Israeli-U.S. propaganda is that several members of UNRWA - a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees - were involved in Operation al-Aqsa Storm on October 7. 

Western donors to the UN agency, starting with the U.S. and Britain, were about as quick to announce their suspension of funding to UNRWA, as the Israeli regime was to announce its smear campaign against UNRWA. 

Suddenly, Western news headlines have changed from the ICJ ruling about the Israeli genocide in Gaza to questions about UNRWA and the Palestinians. 
The script was either handwritten in Tel Aviv or sent to Tel Aviv by Washington and London. 

Australia, Canada, and Germany are among the other Western countries that were in desperate need of something to turn attention away from the ICJ's interim hearing and have followed suit in suspending funding to UNRWA. 

The United Nations and many other international organizations and politicians have sharply condemned any halt of funding to a vital UN agency describing it as "collective punishment" of Palestinians who are starving to death. 
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said, "The tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized. The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met." 

The commissioner general of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said the move by some countries to halt funding to the agency is "shocking". 

"UNRWA is the primary humanitarian agency in Gaza, with over 2 million people depending on it for their sheer survival," Lazzarini said. 

"Some 3,000-core staff out of 13,000 in Gaza continue to report to work, giving their communities a lifeline, which can collapse anytime now due to lack of funding," he added. 
Among the aid agencies, movements and officials that have condemned the move, the British politician and former opposition party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, pointed out that "Yesterday, the ICJ found a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza. Today, the UK has joined others in suspending funding to UNRWA." 

"This is collective punishment; our government should be ashamed of its moral depravity toward Palestinians starving to death," he lamented.

The irony is that Israel as an occupation regime and its main supporters, America and Britain, have a legal obligation under international law to help the Palestinians in Gaza, especially from starving to death. 
Instead, they are doing the opposite and taking steps to starve the Palestinians living inside Gaza, in what the ICJ ruling considered an emergency measure that called on the Tel Aviv regime to allow the entry of food and water into the enclave during its "plausible" genocidal mission. 
Since 1950, UNRWA's task has been to help Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, as well as Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. 
The UN agency employs around 30,000 staff, many of whom are refugees themselves. Its services include education, health and emergency relief assistance. 

The agency has provided much-needed support to Palestinians during the indiscriminate Israeli war on Gaza, sheltering tens of thousands of displaced civilians at its sites across the besieged region while trying to offer humanitarian aid.