The Dutch government on Friday said it would consider resuming funding for the UN agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) in Gaza if the agency implements recommendations to strengthen its neutrality. The decision follows an investigation by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna released on Monday into whether some UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. The Colonna-led review of the agency's neutrality concluded Israel had yet to back up its accusations that hundreds of UNRWA staff were operatives in Gaza terrorist groups.
According to the estimate, 4.9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2022, a 51 percent decrease since 2000 and a 62 per cent drop since 1990, according to the report, which still warned such progress is "precarious" and unequal.
"There is a lot of good news, and the major one is that we have come to a historic level of under-five mortality, which… reached under 5 million for the first time, so it is 4.9 million per year," Helga Fogstad, director of health at the UN children's agency UNICEF, told AFP.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged for the closure of the UNÂ Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) while his forces continue to carry out air strikes in Gaza.