Italy has decided to suspend financing of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Saturday.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Reuters/Emilie Madi
Italy has decided to suspend financing of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Saturday.
The decision follows allegations that some UNRWA workers were involved in the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel carried out by Palestinian militant group Hamas, though Tajani made no direct reference to those suspicions.
"The Italian government has suspended financing of the UNRWA after the atrocious attack on Israel on October 7," Tajani posted on social media platform X, adding that some of Italy's allies had already taken the same decision.
Canada joined the United States, Australia and Italy on Saturday in announcing the suspension of its aid to UNRWA.
Reporting By Gavin Jones
Joe Biden is expected to use Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to wind down the war in Gaza, but in the waning months of his term the U.S. president may lack leverage to bend the Israeli leader to his will.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the Gaza war, was killed on Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.
Israel said on Thursday that Yahya Sinwar, the overall leader of Hamas and the architect of the Palestinian group's Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israeli soil, had been killed.
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