Sweden has announced its decision to resume suspended payments to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), with an initial disbursement of $20m.
Several countries, including the U.S and the UK, paused their funding to UNRWA after accusations by Israel that 12 of the agency’s 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.
In a statement, the Swedish government said, “The government has allocated 400m kronor to UNRWA for the year 2024. Today’s decision concerns a first payment of 200m kronor.”
It said that in order to unblock the aid, UNRWA agreed to “allow controls, independent audits, to strengthen internal supervision and extra controls of personnel.”
The Swedish move came after the European Commission said earlier this month that it would release €50m ($55m/£43m) in UNRWA funding.
It also came as plans to establish maritime corridors into Gaza are underway.
UNRWA Spokesperson, Juliette Touma stated that while any increase in aid to Gaza is welcome, the focus on airdrops or maritime corridors neglects a simpler, more efficient way to deliver assistance.
“That is via the road, using the crossings,” she said, adding, “There are plenty of them that connect Israel to the Gaza Strip.”
She noted, “This is what we used before the war in Gaza when there was a regular flow of about 500 trucks per day, including commercial supplies.”
Since then, however, “the siege on the Gaza Strip has been very tight,” Touma said.
“There has been very little aid coming in. Authorisations to UNRWA and other UN agencies have not been given sufficiently. There needs to be much more.”
Juliette Touma
Meanwhile, the death toll keeps soaring.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, eighty-two people have been killed in 10 Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of deaths in Gaza since October 7 to 30,960.
A statement by the ministry on Telegram also said that 122 people had been injured by the Israeli army over the past day, increasing the total number wounded to 72,524.
“A Hollywood Show”
Saul Takahashi, Professor of human rights and peace studies at Osaka Jogakuin University, opined that new initiatives to get aid into Gaza via airdrops and a maritime corridor are little more than a “Hollywood” show by the US as it simultaneously supplies weapons to Israel.
“If the Americans or the EU give a hoot about Palestinian lives, they would not pretend like they are Hollywood action heroes airlifting supplies into Berlin, but they would stop the endless flow of weapons to Israel, and stop the political support for Israeli genocide.”
Saul Takahashi
“Biden could halt all of this tomorrow with one phone call,” he stated.
“The fact that he is not doing so – and thinks voters will be fooled by this – shows that he must think they are stupid,” Takahashi told a news agency.
“This is not predominately a humanitarian issue. This is not some kind of natural disaster. This is a man-made disaster, this is a genocide,” Takahashi added.
Moreover, Sultan Barakat, Professor of public policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, asserted that the U.S announcement of a maritime aid corridor to Gaza is meant to distract people from the fact that there are trucks full of aid at the Egyptian border.
“I think it’s one of the main purposes for making this announcement at this particular time,” he told a news agency.
He added that it also helps U.S President Joe Biden domestically “given the pressure on him to say something constructive related to Palestine.”
“He had hoped to present a ceasefire. That wasn’t happening, so this was a convenient second choice,” he said.
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