The Age/ David Crowe and Olivia Ireland/15.3.2024
On the one hand Australia Government start funding again whilst cancelling visa’s for the very same people – the irony seems not to be experienced by them!!! Mark
Australia will restore a $6 million funding pledge to the peak United Nations body that helps the Palestinian people in Gaza after a seven-week suspension due to claims that some of the agency’s staff took part in the Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians last October.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the funding would be released under “stringent conditions” in a new agreement with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency with tougher controls to ensure staff neutrality in the conflict between Hamas and Israel.
Australia has restored $6 million in funding to the United Nations’ peak humanitarian aid body for Palestinians, Penny Wong has announced.
“The best available current advice from agencies and the Australian government lawyers is that UNRWA is not a terrorist organisation, and that existing and additional safeguards sufficiently protect Australian taxpayer funding,” she said.
But the decision provoked swift criticism from Israel’s ambassador to Australia and Jewish community groups who believe UNRWA facilities are being used by Hamas, that some of the UN agency’s workers joined the attacks on Israel and that aid intended for civilians was being commandeered by Hamas.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the decision was “risky and reckless” because of the longstanding concerns about the UN body and the fact that the United States was yet to end its pause on funding.
The conflict in Gaza has displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people, with chaotic scenes and deadly incidents taking place during aid distributions as desperately hungry people scramble for food.
At least 29 Palestinians were killed while awaiting aid in two separate Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Israel’s military denied attacking aid centres, describing the reports as false.
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