TORONTO — Canada will restore funding to the United Nations aid agency for Palestinians, a government official tells The Associated Press, weeks after the organization lost hundreds of millions of dollars in aid following Israeli accusations against some of its staffers in Gaza.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation first reported that Canada would restore funding and that International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen would announce the decision on Wednesday. But the government official told the AP that the announcement has been delayed and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the matter.
Canada’s foreign minister is currently in the Middle East and plans to visit Israel.
The war between Israel and Hamas has driven 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes, and UN officials say a quarter of the population is going hungry because access to the enclave is limited. The UN agency known as UNRWA is the main provider of food, water and shelter there, but is on the brink of financial collapse.
Israel accused 12 of its employees of taking part in the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage in Gaza. In response, more than a dozen countries, including Canada, have suspended funding for UNRWA worth about $450 million, almost half of this year’s budget.
UNRWA, which employs about 13,000 people in Gaza, is the largest aid provider in the enclave.
Two UN investigations into Israel’s accusations were already underway when the European Union said Friday it will give 50 million euros ($54 million) to UNRWA, after the agency agreed to allow EU-appointed experts to enter the country. control the way staff screens to identify extremists.
Israel now claims that 450 UNRWA employees were members of militant groups in Gaza, although it has provided no evidence of this.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, said on Monday that he was “never informed” or received any evidence of Israel’s claims. Every year, he said, UNRWA provides Israel and the Palestinian Authority with a list of its employees, “and I have never had the slightest concern about the personnel we employ.”
The only accusation verbally communicated to him was about the 12 UNRWA staff members alleged to have taken part in the October 7 attack, he said, and they seemed so serious that they were dismissed.
UNRWA issued a statement accusing Israel of detaining some of its staff and forcing them, through torture and ill-treatment, to make false confessions about links between the agency, Hamas and the October 7 attack.
The attack sparked an Israeli invasion that killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.