Sweden announced on Friday that it will withdraw its funding for the UN refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and instead increase overall humanitarian aid to Gaza through other means.
Israel claims it will stop UNRWA’s operations in the nation in late January and blames the organization for the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel that started the 14-month-old conflict in Gaza.
The decision was made in response to the Israeli ban because it will make it more difficult to channel aid through the agency, according to Benjamin Dousa, Sweden’s aid minister.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa stated to Reuters. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
Sweden has frequently voiced its disapproval of Israel’s law, according to Dousa, and “in no way” supported it. “Israel must do much more to ensure humanitarian access to Gaza,” according to him.
Despite not outright prohibiting UNRWA’s activities in the West Bank and Gaza, the new Israeli law will significantly hinder the organization’s capacity to operate. UNRWA is the backbone of Gaza’s aid response, according to top UN officials.
Sweden intends to increase its total humanitarian assistance to Gaza from 451 million Swedish crowns ($72.44 million) this year to 800 million Swedish crowns ($72.44 million) next year, according to the country’s foreign ministry.
“The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the UN Populations Fund (UNFPA) will be among the organizations through which aid will be distributed,” the ministry added.
The statement from the Palestinian embassy in Stockholm read: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.” According to the statement, the refugee population depends on UNRWA for humanitarian aid, emergency relief, healthcare, and education.
In support of UNRWA, the UN General Assembly demanded this month that Israel “enable its operations to proceed without impediment or restriction” and obey the agency’s mandate.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, said, “Defunding UNRWA now will undermine decades of Sweden’s investment in human development, including by denying access to education for hundreds of thousands of girls and boys across the region.”
The decision by Sweden to withdraw its support for UNRWA and the meeting they had this week were both praised by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she added.
The UN dismissed nine UNRWA employees who may have taken part in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. We also discovered that UNRWA employed an Israeli-killed Hamas commander in Lebanon.
