Spain said it would not suspend its funding. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said his country would maintain its relations with UNWRA and continue its funding ‘’without modification.’’
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced Wedsnesday that Belgium will not suspend funding for UNWRA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, for the time being despite evidence that staff members of the organization were involved in the October 7 atrocities.
Belgium is waiting for the results of the UN’s internal investigation into the links between certain UNWRA staff and extremist Palestinian organization Hamas,’’ the office of Belgian Minister for Cooperation Development said.
On Tuesday, the Israeli government accused UNWRA of being “fundamentally compromised”, notably by letting Hamas “use its infrastructure” to carry out its military activities and “hide terrorists”.
The agency has “massively hired terrorists” among its 13,000 employees in Gaza, said government spokesman Eylon Levy.
“Around 10%” of the employees are members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad”, the other major terrorist group in Gaza, and “around 50% are first-degree relatives of these members”, he added.
Several countries have announced that their are suspending their funding for UNWRA. Estonia became the latest country to do so.
“With regard to the recent very serious allegations against UNRWA, Estonia will not continue to fund the organization,” Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said on X.
He also called for a “swift and thorough investigation” into the allegations.
The United States was the first to announce that it was “temporarily suspending” all future funding to UNRWA.
A few hours after the announcement of the suspension of US funds, and just as the agency had indicated that it had dismissed “several” employees accused by Israel of involvement in the October 7 assault, Canada, Italy, Australia,New Zealand, Iceland, Japan, the UK, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Romania, Sweden and Italy announced that they were freezing their funding to UNRWA.
France said it would not pay any money in the first quarter, while denouncing accusations of “exceptional gravity”.
Norway said it would continue to pay money to the agency, as did Scotland, whose Prime Minister’s in-laws live in Gaza.
Switzerland is awaiting further information before making its decision.
Spain said it would not suspend its funding. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said his country would maintain its relations with UNWRA and continue its funding ‘’without modification.’’
UNRWA’s biggest donors in 2023 were the US and EU countries, accounting for roughly $865M or about 75% of the agency’s $1.16B budget.
On Monday, the European Commission said it has currently no funding foreseen to UNWRA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, until end of February and in the meantime it is asking the UN body to carry on the investigation which it has announced following allegations that several of its staff members in the Gaza Strip were involved in the October 7 massacres in Israel in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed.
In a statement, the EU said it ‘will determine future funding decisions for UNRWA in the light of the very serious allegations.”
“We first ask the organization to carry out the investigation it has itself announced, and we then ask it to agree to an audit by independent experts to be selected by the Commission,” said Eric Mamer, the EU Commission’s chief spokesman, at Monday’s daily briefing.