"The United States will not provide $45 million that it had pledged last month to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, Reuters reported a State Department spokesman as saying Thursday.
The announcement came days after Washington withheld a separate $65 million, arguing that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) needed a 'fundamental re-examination.'
The money was meant for food aid as part of the West Bank/Gaza Emergency Appeal led by UNRWA last month.
The funds had originally been pledged by State Department Comptroller Eric Hembree in a December 15 letter to UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl, Reuters said.
'The United States plans to make this funding available to UNRWA in early 2018,' the letter said. 'An additional letter and contribution package confirming this contribution will be sent by or before early January 2018.'
Explaining the decision to withhold the cash, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters Thursday that the $45 million was not a guarantee.
'At this time, we will not be providing that, but that does not mean - I want to make it clear - that does not mean that it will not be provided in the future,' Nauert said.
'Money coming in from other countries needs to increase as well to continue paying for all those refugees,' she said, adding that the UN agency needed to reform...
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the move to reporters during his state visit to India, as 'the first time that there is a challenge to UNRWA, after 70 years.
'The agency that perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem and narrative of erasing Zionism - and this is the first time this thing is challenged. It's a good thing that they're moving forward and challenging this body.'
Netanyahu has urged that funding for Palestinian refugees be maintained, but not through UNRWA. Rather, he has called for it to be transferred through the UN's main refugee body, UNHCR..."