Today, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, Norway, which chairs the group of donor countries for Palestine, urged all countries to resume their aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
This call comes the day after the publication of a report prepared by experts commissioned by the United Nations, which concluded that Israel, the occupying power, did not provide any evidence for its accusations against UNRWA.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said, “I am very happy that countries such as Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Japan and Sweden have reversed their decision and resumed their funding to UNRWA.”
He added in a statement: “I would now like to call on countries that are still freezing their contributions to UNRWA to resume their funding.”
Norway is one of the few major donor countries that decided to maintain its aid to UNRWA, despite the Israeli accusations against the UN agency. However, the Israeli accusations led to the suspension of funding by some donor countries, and then a number of them resumed support, including Canada, Sweden, Japan, and the European Union. The European Union and France, but other countries did not do so, such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
The independent team of experts, headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, confirmed yesterday, Monday, that UNRWA “has no alternative and cannot be dispensed with.”
Famine threatens the Gaza Strip in light of the continued Israeli aggression since last October 7, which resulted in the death of more than 34,000 citizens, the majority of whom were children and women, in addition to more than 77,000 injured.
