UK to resume funding UN Gaza aid agency, David Lammy says

The UK will resume funding UNRWA, the UN’s company for Palestinian refugees, the international secretary has introduced.

David Lammy instructed MPs he had acquired reassurances about its neutrality within the wake of a assessment of alleged hyperlinks between its employees and terror teams.

The UK was amongst 16 Western nations to halt donations in January, after Israel alleged 12 UNRWA employees had been concerned within the October 2023 assaults by Hamas.

An inside UN investigation into allegations associated to that assault is ongoing.

However a separate UN assessment, printed in April, discovered Israel had not offered proof for its claims a whole bunch of UNRWA employees had been members of terror teams.

The announcement brings the UK into line with different nations which have resumed funding since then, leaving the US, UNRWA’s single greatest donor, as the one nation to not have restarted donations.

Talking within the Commons, Mr Lammy mentioned “no different company” was in a position to ship support on the scale required to alleviate the “determined” humanitarian state of affairs in Gaza.

He added UNRWA was feeding greater than half the territory’s two-million inhabitants and could be “very important for future reconstruction”.

He mentioned he had been “appalled” by Israel’s allegations, however the claims had been taken “severely” by the United Nations.

He had been reassured the company “is making certain they meet the very best requirements of neutrality” within the wake of the April assessment, he added.

This included “strengthening its procedures, together with on vetting,” Mr Lammy mentioned.

He instructed MPs a resumption of the UK’s £21m annual funding would come with cash put in the direction of “administration reforms” really helpful by the UN assessment.

The Overseas Workplace mentioned £6m could be given to UNRWA’s flash enchantment for Gaza, and £15m to the company’s finances to offer companies within the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and wider area.

UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma instructed the BBC the company welcomed the announcement, which got here at a “vital time as humanitarian wants in Gaza proceed to deepen”.

She added that the company had reassured the UK it was implementing suggestions from the April report, “particularly with reference to persevering with to observe the precept of neutrality in our programmes”.

The assessment, by former French Overseas Minister Catherine Colonna, discovered Israel had “but to offer supporting proof” for its claims {that a} “important variety of UNRWA workers are members of terrorist organizations”.

Israel has mentioned greater than 2,135 workers of the company – out of a complete of 13,000 in Gaza – are members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, proscribed as terrorist organisations by Israel, the UK, US and different nations.

Nevertheless, the assessment concluded the company should do extra to enhance its neutrality, employees vetting and transparency.

Israeli authorities counsel the report ignores the severity of the issue, and declare UNRWA has systematic hyperlinks with Hamas.

Israel initially alleged that 12 UNRWA employees took half within the Hamas assaults on southern Israel, which noticed 1,200 individuals killed and about 250 taken hostage.

Greater than 38,000 individuals have been killed in Gaza since then, in line with the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry, after Israel launched a navy marketing campaign in Gaza in response to the assaults.

UNRWA sacked the ten of the 12 workers who had been nonetheless alive when the allegations emerged and the UN’s Workplace of Inside Oversight launched an investigation into the claims.

In April, the physique mentioned eight workers remained under investigation, with inquiries suspended in 4 of the circumstances due to inadequate proof.

It added it had additionally begun investigations into a further seven employees members, and 6 of these circumstances had been ongoing.

Throughout his Commons assertion, Mr Lammy additionally rejected calls from some Labour MPs to impose a ban on all UK weapons gross sales to Israel.

Alongside Inexperienced MPs and pro-Gaza independents, some 14 Labour backbenchers wish to desk an modification calling for an arms embargo throughout a debate subsequent week on the King’s Speech, the federal government’s law-making plans.

The international secretary mentioned it could “not be proper to have a blanket ban” as Israel was surrounded by enemies in “one of many hardest neighbourhoods on the planet”.

He added that arms export licences could be saved beneath assessment “within the regular approach” by reviewing assessments of Israel’s compliance by authorities attorneys.

A “complete assessment” was beneath approach and he would replace MPs as soon as it was full, Mr Lammy mentioned.

Nevertheless, he didn’t decide to publishing inside authorized recommendation – one thing he referred to as on the earlier authorities to do when Labour was in opposition.