Key Points
- Foreign Minister Penny Wong has announced that Australia will restore funding to the Palestinian aid agency UNRWA.
- "Only UNRWA has the infrastructure to receive and distribute aid on the scale needed right now in Gaza," Wong said.
- She did not clarify questions on evidence regarding allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in 7 October attacks.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has announced that the Australian government will restore funding to the primary aid organisation in the Palestinian territories, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
"Australia is unpausing our contribution to UNRWA," Wong said in Adelaide on Friday, saying the move was informed by the National Security Council this week, adding that the group does "life-saving work".
Wong cited other countries such Canada and Sweden resuming their funding when asked why the government made its decision.
"Only UNRWA has the infrastructure to receive and distribute aid on the scale needed right now in Gaza," Wong said in a statement sent out shortly after the announcement.
"But aid can only reach the civilian population at scale if Israel lets it into Gaza. Australia implores Israel to allow this to happen."
She did not give further information on what, if any, evidence was presented by Israel regarding the allegations that UNRWA members were involved in Hamas' attack on Israel on 7 October last year.
Wong also said Australia will help Jordan and the United Arab Emirates in humanitarian aid drops, deploying a Royal Australian Air Force C-17A Globemaster to deliver 140 Australian Defence Force aerial delivery parachutes.
Wong's announcement finished with providing $4 million to UNICEF and a further $2 million to the office of the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza — bringing the total up to $52.5 million provided to Gaza since the war began.
The response from some sections of the Australian Jewish community was swift.
“This decision is wrong. The government needs to find another way to feed the Gazans," Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion said in a statement emailed to SBS News.
"Our community favours the provision of aid to civilians in Gaza who are in desperate need, but we are totally opposed to the use of UNRWA as an agency for delivering that aid."
What were the allegations against UNRWA?
In late January, Israel accused 12 UNRWA staff of involvement in the 7 October attack, both in public statements and in a diplomatic memo known as the UNRWA File.
The file was not shared publicly but given to the governments of the US and other allies and certain news outlets, including NBC News in the US.
The file claims that not only did at least 12 UNRWA staff take part in the 7 October attack, but that 1,468 staff (out of approximately 13,000) are active members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group inside Gaza.
SBS News is unable to verify the details or veracity of the claims Israel made due to the lack of publicly available evidence.
Israel's accusations against UNRWA included that six staff members allegedly infiltrated Israel on 7 October, while four others allegedly helped kidnap Israelis during the attack.
The memo alleges that other UNRWA staff members were contacted by text message and told to arm themselves and come to an assembly point. It also alleges that at least one staff member assisted with logistics for the attack and another was ordered to establish an "operations room" the day after the attack.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant later raised the number of those allegedly involved, saying that more than 30 UNRWA employees had killed Israeli civilians, kidnapped soldiers or helped detain them.
Other than releasing the names, photos and the alleged role within Hamas of the UNRWA staff members, Israel has not publicly provided any supporting evidence to back up their claims.
The Israeli army levelled more accusations at UNRWA on 4 March, saying it employed over 450 "military operatives" from Hamas and other armed groups, and that Israel has shared this intelligence with the UN.
It did not publicly provide evidence to back up its claims.
What was the international response to Israel's allegations?
When the allegations were made public, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres ordered an immediate investigation into the agency.
Ten of the 12 staff members singled out by Israeli officials were fired by UNRWA. The other two staff members were reported as dead by the agency but it's unclear how they died.
The allegations caused 16 countries including the US, Canada, Sweden, Australia and the EU to pause their funding to the agency — which is a lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza.
, pressure from advocates and aid groups for countries to resume funding to the agency has been consistent, with a coalition of 20 aid organisations including Save the Children and Oxfam calling for it to be restored.
That pressure skyrocketed when a February UNRWA report was released last week and reviewed by news agencies that alleged UNRWA staff were coerced by Israeli authorities to falsely state they were a part of the attacks on 7 October and that the agency has ties to Hamas.
The report said several UNRWA Palestinian staffers had been detained by the Israeli army and had experienced severe physical beatings, waterboarding, and threats of harm to family members.
"Agency staff members have been subject to threats and coercion by the Israeli authorities while in detention, and pressured to make false statements against the Agency, including that the Agency has affiliations with Hamas and that UNRWA staff members took part in the 7 October 2023 atrocities," the report says.
SBS News is unable to independently verify the UNRWA staff accounts of coercion and mistreatment of Palestinian detainees.
What happens now?
While Canada, Sweden and now Australia have restored funding to the UNRWA, it remains to be seen if the US, the biggest contributor to the agency, will follow suit.
The decision to do so is facing considerable opposition in Congress and would need bipartisan help from some Republicans, who currently have the majority in the House of Representatives, to pass.
The US said it wants to see the results of an ongoing inquiry and corrective measures taken before it will consider resuming funding.
It is possible the US' decision to pause funding to UNRWA could become permanent.
However, scrutiny has increased on Israel's claims about the agency, which they say should be shut down, without publicly providing any evidence to back up their claims.
On Thursday the EU's chief humanitarian aid official Janez Lenarcic said that, according to his knowledge, neither he nor anybody else at the EU executive, or any other UNRWA donor, had been presented with evidence by Israel.
— With additional reporting by Reuters
