Sweden, Canada to resume UNRWA funding

Sweden and Canada are to resume funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, nearly two months after 16 donors suspended contributions following Israel's accusation that at least 12 UNRWA workers were involved in the 7 October attacks. Sweden announced it would send half of the 400 million kronor ($39 million) it had allocated to UNRWA for 2024. The EU has also resumed its funding. Following the accusations, UNRWA, which operates in five separate locations where Palestinian refugees live, including Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, agreed to increase transparency while UN investigators conduct their investigation. Some 13,000 people at UNRWA provide healthcare, education, and humanitarian aid to more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, most of them now displaced from their homes by Israel’s five-month and ongoing bombardment and siege. Read our in-depth article to find out why Israel wants to close UNRWA, by far the biggest aid agency operating in Gaza, and what its closure would mean for hundreds of thousands of desperate people, many of them close to starvation.