With an initial payout of $20 million, Sweden announced on Saturday that it was restoring help to the financially challenged UN agency for Palestinians, having received promises of additional checks on its personnel and spending.
In October, Sweden, along with a number of other nations, ceased providing help to UNRWA following accusations by Israel that approximately twelve of its staff members were complicit in the Hamas attack on October 7 that ignited the Gaza conflict.
“The government has allocated 400 million kronor to UNRWA for the year 2024. Today’s decision concerns a first payment of 200 million kronor,” the Swedish government said in a statement.
It said that to unblock the aid, UNRWA had agreed to “allow controls, independent audits, to strengthen internal supervision and extra controls of personnel.”
The Swedish move came after the European Commission earlier this month said it would release 50 million euros in UNRWA funding.
An AFP count based on official Israeli data puts the death toll from Hamas’ October 7 strike on Israel at roughly 1,160, with the majority of the casualties being civilians.
The health ministry of the region reports that around 30,800 individuals, predominantly women and children, have died as a result of Israel’s retaliatory operations in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.
Five months into the war, the amount of aid arriving in Gaza via trucks has drastically decreased.
With nearly five months of Israeli bombardment, the United Nations has warned repeatedly of impending hunger in Gaza, where UNRWA is at the center of efforts to offer humanitarian help.
UNRWA employs around 30,000 people in the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria — with about 13,000 staff in the Gaza Strip.
