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Britain, Italy, Canada and Australia followed the United States in withdrawing financial support for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees after some of its employees were suspected of involvement in the October 7 Hamas attacks against Israel.
The U.N. agency, known as UNRWA, has ended the contracts of the workers involved and has started an investigation into the matter.
“The U.K. is appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the October 7 attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the U.K. government has repeatedly condemned,” the U.K. Foreign Office said in a statement on Saturday. “The U.K. is temporarily pausing any future funding of UNWRA whilst we review these concerning allegations.”
Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani earlier Saturday confirmed Rome’s decision to halt funding for the U.N. agency. Penny Wong, Australia’s foreign minister, made a similar statement on pausing Canberra’s support, adding that she welcomed the U.N. agency’s decision to investigate the charges.
Canada and Finland also said they would be suspending support.
The U.S. — the U.N. agency’s largest donor — on Friday suspended its funding after Israel provided evidence via its security services that 12 of UNRWA’s employees may have been involved in the October 7 attacks, when Hamas militants rampaged into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people and taking more than 250 others hostage.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Saturday said the Israeli government would try to stop the U.N. agency from operating in Gaza after the war, claiming that UNRWA was “not the solution,” and that it had served as a civilian branch of the Hamas militant group.
The agency on Friday said it had ended the contracts of the workers involved and started a probe into the allegations.
“To protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay,” said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner-general, said in a statement Friday.
The U.N. agency, created in 1949, provides health care, education and other humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. In the wake of the October 7 attack, UNRWA used its facilities across Gaza to shelter civilians fleeing Israel’s ground offensive against Hamas militants.
Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), urged countries to rethink their decisions to halt support for UNRWA, saying the moves raise the danger of “great political and humanitarian relief risks.”
“We call on countries that announced the cessation of their support for UNRWA to immediately reverse their decision,” he said on X.
