Erdoğan says UNRWA to open office in Türkiye, calls for more support for agency

The United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA will open an office in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday, urging Muslim countries to give the agency more support after Israel banned it.

Türkiye has called Israel's assault on Gaza genocide and its move to ban UNRWA a violation of international law, particularly amid worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, which has been reduced to rubble with millions displaced.

Addressing foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, Erdoğan said opening an Ankara UNRWA office would deepen Türkiye'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," Erdoğan 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.

Türkiye 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.

Israel has handed responsibility for distributing much of the aid it lets into Gaza to a new U.S.-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates three sites in areas guarded by Israeli troops. The U.N. has rejected the GHF operation saying its distribution work is inadequate, dangerous and violates humanitarian impartiality principles.

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.