UNRWA October 7 controversy

Japan is preparing to resume funding to the U.N.'s crisis-hit Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, the government said.

Once the sixth-largest contributor to the agency, Japan joined more than a dozen countries in pausing funding after Israel claimed that 12 of UNRWA's 13,000 Gaza employees were involved in the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Monday defended the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees as a "lifeline of hope and dignity" and called for a surge of aid into Gaza.

During a visit to Jordan's Wihdat refugee camp in the capital Amman, Guterres said it would be "cruel and incomprehensible" to halt UNRWA's vital services to Palestinian refugees across the region.

Finland will resume funding to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, Foreign Trade and Development Minister Ville Tavio announced on Friday.

Sweden said Saturday it was resuming aid to the cash-strapped U.N. agency for Palestinians with an initial disbursement of $20 million after receiving assurances of extra checks on its spending and personnel.

The EU's two top chiefs said Friday they were "shocked" and "deeply disturbed" by the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians after Israeli troops opened fire during an aid delivery, and demanded an investigation.

Major Israeli military action on Rafah, in Gaza's far south, would heap further devastation on civilians, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned Friday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week said he had ordered troops to prepare to go into the city as it hunts down those behind Hamas's unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres announced Monday the creation of an independent panel to assess UNRWA, its embattled agency tasked with helping Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA is under fire over accusations by Israel that 12 staff members were involved in the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned on Sunday that moves to suspend the funding of U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA were extremely ill-advised.

"Defunding UNRWA would be both disproportionate and dangerous," Borrell said of the agency which is embroiled in controversy over the alleged involvement of employees in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

Suspicion of humanitarian organizations is not a Greek hang-up; it's universal. The case of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) - the agency that has been supporting Palestinian refugees since 1949 - is a typical example.