Mr. John Whyte:

I thank the Deputy. With regard to the mandate, yes, that is correct. It is renewed every three years. Renewing the mandate is less of a concern for us because it is by a vote of the UN General Assembly. Consistently, we have a resounding endorsement of our mandate. I think it will be renewed. The usual people will continue to vote against it. While it is easy enough to push a button in the UN General Assembly, the challenge we face is to provide the resources to enable us to implement that mandate. That is where we have always struggled, as I mentioned earlier. That will continue to be a big challenge for us because there is a lot of pressure on many member states to defund UNRWA and stop supporting its work. It is very unclear for us exactly what the future will hold.

Of course, we are confident that given the resources and the operational conditions, we can implement our mandate. During the ceasefire in January, we demonstrated that objectively. We have 75 years of experience in Gaza so we know what we are doing. We have incredibly experienced, dedicated and committed staff. What we are facing, of course, is unprecedented attacks on all fronts, including operational and legal constraints. We will continue to try to weather the storm. The staff have been through difficult times before, albeit nothing like this, and they are determined. They will turn up to work whether I am in Gaza or outside of it. I have not been able to be there since March but the staff still turn up every day to do what they can to support their people on a daily basis, come what may. I have staff in the north. I am trying to persuade them not to go to the office because the tanks are about 300 m away.

To answer on the GHF, of course, the concerns about the GHF are well known. We have staff, sadly, who went to try and get food from the GHF sites and we have no idea what happened to them. They did not return.