The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, has announced that the Government will contribute 3.5 million euros to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) so that it can maintain its activities in the short term after the withdrawal of funding by several donor countries due to suspicions that several of their employees participated in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, an event that unleashed the bloody war in Gaza.
At the end of January, Spain already distanced itself from other countries such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Romania and Japan, as well as the three Baltic countries, which They stopped their aid to this NGO. Albares already said then that he would maintain the financing.
Before the International Cooperation Commission of the Congress of Deputies, Albares has insisted that it is an “indispensable organization” and that is why the Government will mobilize an urgent allocation of 3.5 million euros, of which he already informed the UNRWA Commissioner General, Philippe Lazzarini.
The minister has focused on the “desperate situation” in Gaza and has warned of the risk that “in a few weeks” UNRWA activities will have to be paralyzed due to lack of funds, while highlighting that this agency of the The UN supports 6 million Palestinian refugees, three out of four of whom are outside Palestine.
Thus, he has asked the deputies of all political parties to support “a great agreement to support UNRWA” during the planned debate, whose work, he has defended, “is more necessary than ever.”
Likewise, it has acknowledged concern over the allegations that a dozen workers from this agency participated in the Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7 and has highlighted that both UNRWA and the UN have immediately initiated an investigation. “We follow it very closely,” she pointed out.
The Government made voluntary contributions to UNRWA worth €18.5 million in 2023, including €10 million approved last December, following the decision to triple cooperation and humanitarian aid to Palestine.
