British FM: UK needs ‘guarantee’ UNRWA won’t hire employees who seek to attack Israel

Britain wants an “absolute guarantee” that the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) will not employ staff who are willing to attack Israel, Foreign Secretary David Cameron says, after allegations that some were involved in the October 7 onslaught.

Britain last month joined the United States in “temporarily pausing” funding for UNRWA following allegations that around 12 of its thousands of Palestinian employees were suspected of involvement in the Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war.

Asked what Britain needs to see in order to resume funding, Cameron says: “What we’re looking for is an absolute guarantee that this can’t happen again. Let’s be clear here that it looks as if there were people working for UNRWA who took part in the October 7 attacks on Israel. That is unacceptable.”

“That’s why we paused our funding. That’s why these reviews are taking place,” he tells reporters during a trip to Bulgaria. “We need them to take place quickly because many UNRWA staff do an absolutely vital job inside Gaza, where they are the only network for distributing aid, to make sure that we get aid to people that need it very, very badly.”