Austria on Monday became the latest country to suspend additional funding for the U.N.’s Palestinian relief agency, a day after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged countries to resume funding to help displaced people in Gaza who are desperately in need of assistance.
Austria’s foreign ministry issued a statement calling on the agency, known as UNRWA, and the United Nations to “conduct a comprehensive, swift and complete investigation into the allegations” that a dozen aid workers played a role in the October Hamas attack on Israel.
At least 10 other countries, which together account for about 60% of UNRWA’s funding, have suspended funding. Those countries include the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Norway said Sunday that while it shares concerns about the allegations, it will continue its funding for the agency.
“UNRWA is a lifeline for millions of people in deep distress in Gaza as well as in the wider region,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said on X.
Guterres warned that without adequate funding for UNRWA, aid for more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza would be scaled back as soon as Thursday, Feb. 1.
"The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences," Guterres said in a statement, adding that they could face criminal prosecution. Nine of the aid workers were immediately fired, one was confirmed dead and officials are clarifying the identity of two others.
Still, Guterres said, “The tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized. The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met."
Israel immediately rebuked Guterres for calling for the resumption of Palestinian assistance. Gilad Erdan, the Jewish state’s ambassador to the U.N., said that Guterres “has proven once again that the security of the citizens of Israel is not really important for him.”
“After years in which he ignored the evidence presented to him personally about UNRWA's support and involvement in incitement and terrorism, and before he conducted a comprehensive investigation to locate all Hamas terrorists in UNRWA, he called to fund an organization that is deeply contaminated with terrorism,” Erdan said.
Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and others. Israel says the group’s Oct. 7 attack killed 1,200 people.
“Every country that continues to fund UNRWA before a comprehensive investigation of the organization should know that its money might be used for terrorism, and the aid that will be transferred to UNRWA may reach the Hamas terrorists instead of the people of Gaza,” Erdan concluded.
The U.N. agency provides basic services, including medical care and education, for Palestinian families who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding the country's creation. They now live in built-up refugee camps in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
The dispute over Palestinian relief funding came as two senior U.S. officials said negotiators were reported to be closing in on a cease-fire agreement that would halt the Israel-Hamas fighting for two months and lead to the release of the remaining 100 or so hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The emerging terms of the deal would call for the release of the remaining women, elderly and wounded hostages in a first 30-day phase, but details on the release of men were not clear. The pending deal also calls for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director Bill Burns met Sunday in Paris with David Barnea, the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel to discuss the possible cease-fire.
More than 100 hostages were released in late November during a week-long cease-fire in exchange for 240 Palestinians jailed by Israel. But since then, fighting has been non-stop and no more hostages have been freed.
Israel’s military said Monday it carried out airstrikes in the Khan Younis area, in southern Gaza, while ground operations killed militants in both central and northern Gaza.
The Israeli military also said “a terrorist carried out a ramming attack” next to an Israeli base in northern Israel, then was shot by Israeli troops after getting out of a vehicle and trying to attack Israel forces with an axe.
The Israeli counteroffensive after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, while also destroying vast swaths of Gaza and displacing nearly 85% of the territory's people.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
