Australia will resume funding to the United Nations’ main Palestinian relief agency, Foreign Minister Penny Wong says, almost two months after it paused ties over allegations some of the agency’s employees participated in the October 7 Hamas attack.
“The best available current advice from agencies and the Australian government lawyers is that UNRWA is not a terrorist organization, and that existing additional safeguards sufficiently protect Australian taxpayer funding,” Wong says, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
She says Canberra is working on signing a new funding agreement with UNRWA, after Israel provided information that led Australia to conclude it could resume contributing some $6 million to the aid agency.
“I don’t know what I don’t know. What I do know is this, I know there’s people starving in Gaza … I know that UNRWA is critical to providing this assistance to people who are on the brink of starving,” she says.
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