LONDON (Reuters) – Britain, Italy and Finland on Saturday became the latest countries to suspend funding for the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) following allegations that its personnel were allegedly involved in the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
Created to help refugees from the 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel, UNRWA provides education, health and aid services to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and from Lebanon. It helps around two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and has played a central role in providing aid during the ongoing war.
The United States, Australia and Canada had already cut off funding to the agency after Israel said 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the cross-border attack. The agency opened an investigation into several employees and severed ties with them.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry criticized what it called an Israeli campaign against UNRWA and the Hamas militant group condemned the termination of employees’ contracts “based on information from the Zionist enemy.”
Britain’s Foreign Office said it was temporarily suspending funding to UNRWA while the accusations were investigated and noted that London had condemned the October 7 attacks as “heinous” terrorism.
“The Italian government suspended funding to UNRWA after the atrocious attack on Israel on October 7,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on social media X.
Finland also said it was suspending funding.
Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Palestinians’ umbrella political body, said cutting off support carried major political and humanitarian risks.
“We call on countries that have announced the cessation of their support for UNRWA to immediately reverse their decision,” he said on X.
(Reporting by James Davey in London and Gavin Jones in Rome, writing by William Maclean and Andrew Cawthorne, French version Benjamin Mallet)
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