Sweden announced it was resuming aid to the cash-strapped UN agency for the Palestinians with an initial disbursement of $20 million, after receiving assurances of additional controls on its spending and its staff.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the main humanitarian agency in Gaza, has faced an unprecedented funding crisis after its main international donors, the United States United Lead, have reduced its funding due to allegations of “terrorism”.
Like several other countries, Sweden suspended its aid to UNRWA after Israel accused a dozen of its employees of being involved in the attack carried out by Hamas on October 7 before the conflict in Gaza.
Sweden said on Saturday that “the government has allocated 400 million crowns to UNRWA for the year 2024. Today’s decision concerns an initial payment of 200 million crowns ($19.4).”
To release the aid, UNRWA had agreed to “authorize controls, independent audits, strengthen internal supervision and additional staff checks,” the government said.
The Swedish move comes after the European Commission announced earlier this month that it would release 50 million euros ($54.7 million) in UNRWA funding.
On Friday, Canada announced it was lifting a freeze on UNRWA funding, after joining the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries in cutting aid in late January.
Israel called the decision “a serious error that constitutes tacit agreement and support by the governments of Canada and Sweden to continue to ignore the involvement of UNRWA employees in terrorist activities,” the spokesperson said. of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lior Haiat.
“Returning funding to UNRWA will not change the fact that the organization is part of the problem and will not be part of the solution in the Gaza Strip,” Haiat added.
“The agency risks death, it risks dismantling,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told Swiss broadcaster RTS in an interview broadcast on Saturday, but he expressed hope that more funding would resume after the measures taken by Canada and Sweden.
“What is at stake today is the short-term fate of Palestinians in Gaza who are experiencing an absolutely unprecedented humanitarian crisis. »
“I am cautiously optimistic that in the coming weeks, and also after the publication of Catherine Colonna’s report, a number of donors will return,” he said, referring to a report by the French foreign minister that will be made public next month.
After Israel’s allegations against UNRWA, Colonna began working on the report in mid-February and wants to travel to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and Amman, the Jordanian capital, next week.
UNRWA has been at the center of efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, where the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported last month that at least half a million – or one in four people – was facing starvation.
Israel has severely restricted the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, prompting the United States and other countries to resort to stopgap measures such as airdropping meals into the enclave.
Such measures by the United States, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have been criticized by humanitarian agencies as a costly and ineffective way to deliver food and medical supplies.
UNRWA said Israeli authorities had not allowed it to deliver supplies to the northern Gaza Strip since January 23.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud reported that in northern Gaza “we are seeing children dying in this forced starvation and dehydration due to the spread of famine.”
He said on Saturday that three more children died at al-Shifa hospital from starvation and dehydration, bringing the death toll to 23.
At least 30,960 Palestinians have been killed and 72,524 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel following the October 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139, with dozens still held in captivity.
