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10-03-2024
STOCKHOLM/ OTTAWA/ GAZA CITY: Sweden and Canada have said they will resume aid payments to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
They were among 16 countries that paused funds after Israel accused at least 12 UNRWA staff of involvement in the 7 October attack by Hamas.
The UN is investigating, and France’s foreign minister is leading a review.
Sweden said on Saturday that it would send 200 million kronor (£15m; $19m) initially, after UNRWA agreed to more checks on its spending and staff.
“The government has allocated 400 million kronor to UNRWA for the year 2024. Today’s decision concerns a first payment of 200 million kronor,” it said in a statement.
It comes after Canada said on Friday that it would re-start funding for UNRWA while investigations into the agency’s staff continue.
On 7 October, Hamas gunmen stormed across Gaza’s border into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage.
In response, Israel launched a campaign of air strikes and a ground invasion of the territory.
More than 30,900 people have since been killed in Gaza, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says, and the amount of aid reaching civilians has plummeted.
The UN has warned that a quarter of the Strip’s population is on the brink of famine and children are starving to death.
UNRWA is the biggest UN agency operating in Gaza. It provides healthcare, education and other humanitarian aid, and employs about 13,000 people there.
The European Commission said earlier this month that it would release 50 million euros in UNRWA funding.
Sweden is the fourth largest contributor to the agency’s budget, and Canada the 11th largest, 2022 data shows.
Canada’s decision was announced in a statement on Friday by the country’s Minister of International Development, Ahmed Hussein.
He said it was made so that “more can be done to respond to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians”, and “in recognition of the robust investigative process under way”.
The Canadian Armed Forces will also donate about 300 cargo parachutes to Jordan, so they can be used to airdrop supplies into Gaza.
On Friday the EU, UK, US and others said they planned to open a sea route to Gaza to deliver aid that could begin operating this weekend.
The US says it airdropped 36,000 meals into northern Gaza on Tuesday in co-ordination with Jordan – the second such joint mission in recent days.
It came a day after the World Health Organization said children were dying of starvation in the north, where an estimated 300,000 Palestinians are living with little food or clean water but the strategy has sparked considerable discussion, with humanitarian organizations saying it cannot meet the soaring needs.
It is also a symbol of the failure of the aid effort on the ground. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
