After Spain, Norway also provides financial support to the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA), which has come under criticism. The aid organization is the backbone of all humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said on Thursday during a visit to Washington.
Norway will therefore transfer 275 million Norwegian crowns (24 million euros) for the work of the organization for Palestinian refugees.
At the beginning of this week, Spain announced that it would support the aid organization with a special payment of 3.5 million euros. According to the government, the Norwegian contribution will benefit UNRWA’s work with 5.9 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank including East Jerusalem, as well as in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Norway is waiting for clarification
At the same time, Eide made it clear in a statement from his ministry on Wednesday evening that they were shocked by the allegations against UNRWA employees and expected full transparency about them. But it is completely wrong to collectively punish millions of people for the alleged actions of twelve employees.
UNRWA recently warned that all work would have to stop within four weeks if promised funds were not paid. More than a dozen countries, including the largest donors the US and Germany, have suspended a total of more than 400 million euros in payments.
The background is the accusation that twelve of the approximately 13,000 employees of the aid organization in the Gaza Strip were involved in Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7.
Source: Krone
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