Before 7 October last year, observers had long suspected an uncomfortable symbiosis between UNRWA, the UN organisation tasked with organising aid to the unfortunate Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, and the autocratic Hamas government in control in Gaza city. The attack on Israel on that day certainly didn’t dispel these suspicions, and in January this year Israel alleged that a number of UNRWA staff had been implicated. Seventeen countries paused funding for UNRWA, including the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, the EU and several individual European states. So did the UK, which last year had provided about £35 million.
The UK, which had said it would await the Colonna report before making a decision, will now face immense pressure to resume payments
Will this funding come back? Some has already been re-pledged (for example, by Australia, Canada and the EU), but a number of donors, including the UK and the US, remain holdouts.
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