Ireland has pledged €20 million ($16.7 million) funding for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees after the US and its allies suspended their assistance for the agency based on unsubstantiated Israeli allegations.
On Thursday, Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defense, Micheál Martin, affirmed his country’s insistence on sustaining its assistance to the agency.
Martin, who was speaking at a joint news conference with Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), Philippe Lazzarini in Dublin, called the agency’s work a “lifeline” for the displaced Palestinians in Gaza. “There is no replacement for UNRWA’s work in Gaza,” the Irish top diplomat said.
Led by the United States, a whole host of states, namely Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Estonia, Japan, Austria, and Romania withdrew their financial support for the agency.
The move was taken over Israeli allegations that 12 of the agency’s 13,000-strong staff in the Gaza Strip were involved in Operation al-Aqsa Storm, an operation staged by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups against the occupied territories on October 7, 2023.
The US-led withdrawal of support for UNRWA denies the agency funding worth about $450 million, which amounts to almost half of the agency’s budget for 2024.
The developments come amid a genocidal war that the Israeli regime has been waging against Gaza following the Palestinian operation.
More than 28,660 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have so far died and around 1.9 million others been displaced in Gaza as a result of the brutal Israeli onslaught.
