The US and eight other Western countries have decided to pause funding for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
- These countries together provided more than half of UNRWA’s 2022 budget. Israel has alleged that 12 staff members of UNRWA were involved in the October 7, 2024 attack.
- It has also claimed that Hamas siphons off funds given to UNRWA and fights from in and around the agency’s facilities.
About UNRWA
- Following the 1948 War, UNRWA was established by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949 to carry out direct relief and works programmes for Palestine refugees.
- The Agency began operations on 1 May 1950. It was founded to provide aid to about 700,000 Palestinians who were forced to leave their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
- The UN agency operates in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan — countries where the refugees took shelter after their expulsion.
- UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions by donor states like the US.
- It also gets a limited subsidy from the UN, which is used only for administrative costs.
