Canada, Sweden announce resumption of aid funding for Palestinians

Sweden and Canada have announced that they will restart aid payments to UNRWA, the UN organization for Palestinian refugees, after the funding were withheld due to the agency’s personnel involvement in Hamas attacks last month.

At least 16 nations have ceased funding UNRWA due to accusations of complicity by its staff. Currently, 12 of its employees are under investigation for the alleged attacks on October 7 of last year.

The United Nations is conducting the probe, and France’s foreign minister is in charge of the evaluation.

Sweden announced on Saturday that it would contribute 200 million kronor initially after UNRWA agreed to conduct additional investigations after the claims.

Sweden’s announcement comes after Canada on Friday said that it would re-start funding for UNRWA while investigations continue.

UNRWA is the biggest UN agency operating in Gaza providing healthcare, education and other humanitarian aid to the people. There are about 13,000 UNRWA employees there.

After many countries stopped the funding, the agency was “at risk of death”. Within days, Lazzarini said an investigation was being carried out, and “to protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance” these staff members had been sacked.

According to a 2022 data, Sweden is the fourth largest contributor to the agency’s budget, and Canada is the 11th largest. The US, Germany, EU, Sweden, Norway and Japan are the top five countries contributing to the UNRWA.

The Canadian Armed Forces said it will also donate about 300 cargo parachutes to Jordan, so they can be used to airdrop supplies into Gaza.