Sweden says it will stop funding UNRWA, will increase Gaza aid to other agencies

"Sweden announced on Friday that it will no longer fund the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, UNRWA.

The Nordic country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, told the Swedish TV4 network that Stockholm will instead bolster its humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip via other channels.

Sweden’s decision to end funding for UNRWA was in response to a recent Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid to the Palestinians via the agency more difficult, Dousa said. Sweden plans to increase its overall humanitarian assistance to Gaza next year, he added.

‘There are several other organizations in Gaza, I have just been there and met several of them,’ the minister said, naming the UN World Food Programme as one potential recipient.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli hailed Sweden’s decision, saying it was ‘courageous and critical,’ and that UNRWA ‘has lost its legitimacy to exist’ due to involvement in terror activities by staff members.

Israel has long had a combative relationship with UNRWA, which it argues has perpetuated the Palestinian refugee crisis by allowing the status to be passed down through generations.

Frustration with UNRWA in Jerusalem has picked up over the past decade as Israel has found the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group embedded within the agency’s infrastructure.

That anger has peaked since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, in which a number of UNRWA staffers were found to have participated, including kidnapping and killing Israelis..."