Norway says sending $24 million to UNRWA after Israel ban

The Norwegian government says that it will contribute $24 million to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the same day that Israel banned the group from operating on Israeli territory.

“Gaza is in ruins, and UNRWA’s help is more necessary than ever,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide says in a statement. “It is extremely dramatic for Palestine that Israeli laws come into force that in practice can prevent UNRWA from working.”

Starting Thursday, UNRWA is banned from operating on Israeli soil and contact between it and Israeli officials is forbidden. Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the ban late Wednesday.

Israeli officials have repeatedly accused UNRWA of being a cover for terror groups and undermining the country’s security. The hostility intensified in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, with accusations that a number of UNRWA employees participated in the assault.