UNRWA donors likely to continue funding soon, Norwegian FM says

Many countries that paused funding to the UN Palestinian refugee agency are likely having second thoughts and payments could resume soon, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said on Wednesday.

Several countries, including the United States and Britain, paused their funding to UNRWA after accusations by Israel that a dozen of its 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Norway, a top donor to UNRWA, has maintained its funding and transferred 275 million crowns ($26 million) in February, its regular annual contribution, and said more could come. It is also lobbying countries that have paused funding to resume.

"I think that a large number of those countries who suspended are (having) second thoughts," Barth Eide told Reuters in an interview, citing the recognition from these nations that "they cannot punish the whole Palestinian society".

"This is increasingly recognised and agreed by many," he said, after meeting Norwegian aid organisations to take stock of the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

"But then, of course, they need an honourable way out, which means they are hoping, I think - without speaking for individual countries - that they will get something from these investigations that suggest that they can say: "well, we needed to suspend, but now we're back'."

The UN is conducting an internal probe, while former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna is leading an independent review.

UNRWA sacked the staff accused by Israel of involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks, saying at the time that the Israeli allegations - if true - were a betrayal of UN values and of the people UNRWA serves.

Juliette Touma, UNRWA director of communications, said none of the 16 donors which had frozen their funding had resumed yet, and urged them to reconsider their decisions.

"We are operating from hand-to-mouth. That's how we got through February. That's how we will get through March," she told Reuters. "Every penny counts."

The head of the UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, warned on Monday of "a deliberate and concerted campaign" aimed at ending its operations as Israel accused the organisation of employing over 450 "military operatives" from Hamas and other armed groups.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's air and ground campaign in Gaza has since killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave say.

Reuters