Australia pauses UN agency funding as staff investigated for suspected role in 7 October attack on Israel

Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Australia will temporarily pause its funding of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) while an investigation is under way into several employees accused of taking part in Hamas’s 7 October attacks in Israel, the foreign minister has announced.

Penny Wong on Saturday said Australia will join its likeminded partners in the US and Canada in pausing the funding. She said Australia was deeply concerned about the allegations.

“We welcome UNRWA’s immediate response, including terminating contracts and launching an investigation, as well its recent announcement of a full investigation into allegations against the organisation,” Wong said in a statement.

“Australia will engage closely with UNRWA on investigations and is consulting with international partners. While we do this, we will temporarily pause disbursement of recently announced funding.”

UNRWA announced on Friday that Israeli authorities had provided the agency with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA in the 7 October attacks, and that the contracts of those staff members were immediately terminated with an investigation launched.

The agency has not specified the exact number of employees Israel alleges to have been involved in the attacks, or the nature of their involvement, but UNRWA has vowed that anyone involved would be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.

The suspension of funding from Australia comes just days after Wong announced a nearly doubling of the humanitarian funding directed to conflict-affected populations in the occupied Palestinian territories, with $21.5m in new funding, including $6m for UNRWA.

Despite the temporary suspension, Wong said the UNRWA “does vital, life saving work.”

“It is providing essential services in Gaza directly to those who need it, with more than 1.4m Palestinians currently sheltering in its facilities,” she said.

“Australia will continue to support the people of Gaza and work to provide humanitarian assistance. We reiterate our calls for civilians to be protected, and for humanitarian access.”

It is understood Australia is seeking to better understand the situation from the other UNRWA funding partners such as the US, Canada and the UK who contribute the lion’s share of funding to the agency.

Israeli officials, including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, have accused the agency of complicity with Hamas and fuelling anti-Israeli sentiments. UNRWA denied the allegations.

The Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy accused UNRWA of announcing the news while the world’s attention was focused on the international court of justice ordering Israel to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians and do more to help civilians in Gaza.

“Any other day, this would have been a major headline: Israel submits evidence of UN employees’ complicity with Hamas,” Levy wrote on X.

More than 26,000 people have been killed in Gaza – two-third of them women and children – since Israel’s military response to Hamas’s 7 October attack commenced, Palestinian authorities report. About 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s 7 October attack.