Italy and Canada have joined the United States and Australia in suspending their funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), following allegations that some of its employees were involved in the October 7 attacks in Israel by Hamas militants.
The Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced the decision on Saturday, saying that “The Italian government suspended funding to UNRWA after atrocious attacks by Hamas against Israel on 7 October.
Allied Countries have recently made the same decision. We are committed to humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population, protecting Isreal’s security”.
The Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau said on Friday that Canada was “deeply troubled” by the allegations and that it had “immediately suspended all funding to UNRWA pending the outcome of an investigation”.
He said that Canada expected UNRWA to “take swift and appropriate action to address any wrongdoing by its staff”.
The UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that the agency had opened an investigation into several employees suspected of involvement in the attacks and that it had terminated the contracts of those staff members.
He said that any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror would be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified” by the news and that he had asked Lazzarini to conduct a probe to ensure that any UNRWA employee shown to have participated or abetted the attacks be terminated immediately and referred for potential criminal prosecution.
He also said that an urgent and comprehensive independent review of UNRWA would be conducted.
The UNRWA is a UN agency that provides humanitarian and development assistance to more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
It operates in areas such as education, health care, relief and social services, infrastructure and camp improvement, microfinance and emergency response.
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The agency has faced financial and political challenges in recent years, especially after the US, its largest donor, cut off its funding in 2018, accusing it of mismanagement and perpetuating the refugee problem.
The agency has also been accused by Israel of being biased and of allowing its facilities to be used by Hamas for storing weapons and launching attacks.
The October 7 attacks, which were claimed by Hamas, involved hundreds of rockets and drones launched from the Gaza Strip into southern and central Israel, killing 24 people and injuring hundreds more.
Israel responded with airstrikes and ground operations in Gaza, killing more than 2,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and displacing tens of thousands. The attacks triggered a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where UNRWA provides aid to more than 1.2 million refugees.