Britain wants an "absolute guarantee" that the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) will not employ staff who are willing to attack Israel, Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Wednesday, after allegations that some were involved in the Oct. 7 violence.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, Reuters/Mohamed Azakir
Britain wants an "absolute guarantee" that the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) will not employ staff who are willing to attack Israel, Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Wednesday, after allegations that some were involved in the Oct. 7 violence.
Britain last month joined the United States in "temporarily pausing" funding for UNRWA following allegations that around 12 of its thousands of Palestinian employees were suspected of involvement in the Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war.
Donors such as Britain and the United States have indicated they will not resume support until the U.N.'s internal investigation into the allegations ends. A preliminary report is due to be published in the next several weeks.
Asked what Britain needed to see in the report in order to resume funding, Cameron said: "What we're looking for is an absolute guarantee that this can't happen again. Let's be clear here that it looks as if there were people working for UNRWA who took part in the October 7th attacks on Israel. That is unacceptable."
"That's why we paused our funding. That's why these reviews are taking place," he told reporters during a trip to Bulgaria. "We need them to take place quickly because many UNRWA staff do an absolutely vital job inside Gaza, where they are the only network for distributing aid, to make sure that we get aid to people that need it very, very badly."
UNRWA was established in 1949 following the war of Israel's founding, when 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes. Nearly the entire Gaza population now relies on UNRWA for basics including food, water and hygiene supplies.
The head of UNRWA said on Tuesday that calls for it to be dismantled were short-sighted and that terminating the agency's mandate would deepen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Britain has provided funding for UNRWA until the end of the financial year and it says it is working with other agencies to help get aid into Gaza.
Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic in Sofia
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told his U.S. counterpart that military operations in the Gaza Strip have created conditions that would enable a hostage deal to be reached, Gallant's office said on Wednesday.
A meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the Middle East was briefly interrupted on Wednesday when two protesters stood with signs and yelled for the release of Israeli hostages held by Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Oman, the group said on Tuesday, which left at least nine people dead, including three attackers, a rare security breach in the oil-producing Gulf state.
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.