Sweden resumes funding to UN agency for Palestinians

By Leila Nezirevic

LONDON (AA) – Sweden announced on Saturday that it is lifting a freeze on aid for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), after the UN warned the Security Council last week of “imminent famine” in the Gaza Strip.

The Nordic country pledged to give the initial $20 million after receiving guarantees from the agency of extra checks on its expenditure and personnel.

"The government has allocated 400 million kronor (around $38.7 million) to UNRWA for the year 2024. Today's decision concerns a first payment of 200 million kronor ($19.4 million)," the Swedish government said in a statement.

The agency had promised to "allow controls, independent audits, to strengthen internal supervision and extra controls of personnel," it said.

Following the Israeli accusation that some of its members were involved in the Oct. 7 attacks, Sweden, and many other countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia, have halted payments to UNRWA in late January, pending an investigation.

The Swedish decision came after the European Commission earlier this month said it would release €50 million ($54.7 million) in UNRWA funding.

Canada also announced on Friday that it is resuming aid, citing the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and after facing fierce criticism at home for cutting assistance during Israel’s war in Gaza.

Earlier this week, the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide urged the world to stand by the agency as “now is exactly the wrong time to halt funding for UNRWA.”

“If these decisions are not reversed, we run a serious risk of worsening the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” he said in a Foreign Ministry statement.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini accused Tel Aviv of having a “long-term political goal” of “destroying” the UN aid agency together with the idea that Palestinians are refugees who have a right to return home one day, the Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger reported.

“At the moment, we are dealing with an expanded, concentrated Israeli campaign, which is aimed at destroying UNRWA,” Lazzarini said in the interview published last month.

Since Israel waged the brutal war on Gaza, nearly 31,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed, while tens of thousands injured, missing, or uncounted for, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The United Nations warned the Security Council last week of “imminent famine in the Gaza Strip,” urging immediate action to prevent a humanitarian disaster in a territory where many council members warned that Israel is using “hunger as a weapon of war.”

At least 576,000 people in Gaza – one-quarter of the population – are “one step away from famine,” said Ramesh Rajasingham, the director of coordination at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, according to a UN press release.

The food-security experts warn of “complete agricultural collapse in northern Gaza by May” if conditions persist, said the UN.

“Unfortunately, as grim as the picture we see today is, there is every possibility for further deterioration,” Rajasingham reported.