Canada is becoming a member of the US in suspending funding for a UN company that helps Palestinians, in response to allegations company workers performed a job within the Hamas assault on Israel final October.
Ottawa has ordered a short lived pause on “any extra funding” for the United Nations Aid and Works Company for Palestine Refugees within the Close to East.
The director for the company generally known as UNWRA says it has terminated workers suspected of involvement within the Hamas assault, with out sharing what function they could have performed.
The U.S. State Division says it believes 12 workers are going through accusations of involvement.
Worldwide Improvement Minister Ahmed Hussen says Canada will channel humanitarian assist for Palestinians in Gaza by different companies till the investigation is finished.
He says UNRWA should take motion towards any of its workers who’re confirmed to have performed a job within the assaults.
“Canada is taking these experiences extraordinarily severely and is participating intently with UNRWA and different donors on this challenge,” he stated in an announcement late Friday afternoon.
The UN company says 153 of its workers have died through the Israel-Hamas warfare, and roughly 13,000 workers are nonetheless attempting to ship assist within the Gaza Strip.
The warfare started Hamas militants killed round 1,200 individuals and took about 250 hostages on Oct. 7.
In retaliation, Israel launched a navy marketing campaign within the Gaza Strip that the Hamas-run Well being Ministry says has killed greater than 26,000 individuals, together with militants.
Israel is tightly controlling entry factors into Gaza and proscribing provides, making it tough for humanitarian assist to get inside.
Final November, Overseas Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly praised the company for offering the necessities of life in Gaza, noting it’s “the one group capable of concretely do that” and that Canada is “a big donor” to the company.
On the time, International Affairs Canada famous that Canada’s funding for UNRWA work in Gaza isn’t just for humanitarian aid.
The cash was additionally aimed toward serving to “establish, monitor and comply with up on neutrality violations” inside the group and boosting “transparency and accountability of UNRWA’s method to humanitarian ideas,” the division stated.
Jewish teams and previous Canadian governments have taken UNRWA to activity over social-media statements by the company’s workers that they argue don’t uphold neutrality.
They’ve additionally voiced considerations that UN assist might be diverted to Hamas, which Canada and others deem a terrorist group.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative authorities lower off Canadian funding for UNWRA in 2010, amid allegations it was too intently tied to Hamas.
Funding resumed beneath the federal Liberals in 2016.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Jan. 26, 2024.
— With recordsdata from The Related Press.
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
