UN’s Palestinian aid agency calls on EU countries to resume all funding

The deputy head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has called on nine EU countries whose support is still suspended to resume their payments soon, warning that it only has funding until early May to mitigate famine in Gaza, Report informs, citing the Financial Times.

“The good news is that the EU funding has come back,” said Natalie Boucly, UNRWA deputy commissioner-general. “We’re hoping that others will come back gradually.”

“We do have a financing problem, of course, because we still have European countries who are not clear about their position,” she added. “We’re good until the end of April or beginning of May . . . and then it’s not clear.”

EU members Austria, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Romania are yet to announce they are restarting UNRWA funding.

“Member states are navigating very political territory,” said Boucly, who praised the decisions of Denmark and Sweden to resume payments. “Of course, our concern is not the politics of it. It’s just to make sure that we are able to work at the moment in Gaza.”