UK Restores Funding to ‘Hamas-Linked’ U.N. Agency
23rd July 2024
After a pause lasting five months, the new Labour government has announced that the UK will restart funding to a United Nations agency that Israel claims has been infiltrated by Hamas.
It was alleged that staff of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) were involved in the October 7th terror attacks, coinciding with criticism from MEPs about the longer-term use of European Union funds in Gaza. In January 2024, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak halted British payments to the organisation. Despite Israel’s legitimate security concerns, UK funding of UNRWA has now resumed.
Israel says that dozens of workers from the UNRWA took part in October’s pogrom, which saw more than 1,100 Israelis killed and 251 hostages taken, and that intelligence points to “the deep and systemic infiltration by … Hamas into the ranks of UNRWA.”