Canada is joining the United States in halting funding for a UN agency that supports Palestinians in response to allegations that agency employees played a role in the Hamas attack on Israel last October.
Ottawa has ordered a temporary suspension of “any additional funding” for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East.
The director of the agency, known as UNWRA, said it fired employees suspected of involvement in the Hamas attack, without saying what role they may have played.
The US State Department assumes that twelve employees are accused of involvement.
International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen said Canada would channel humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza through other agencies until the investigation was completed.
He says UNRWA must take action against any of its staff found to have been involved in the attacks.
“Canada takes these reports extremely seriously and is working closely with UNRWA and other donors on this matter,” he said in a statement late Friday afternoon.
The UN agency says 153 of its staff have died during the Israel-Hamas war and about 13,000 staff are still trying to provide aid in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier in the war, Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages on October 7.
In retaliation, Israel launched a military campaign in the Gaza Strip that killed more than 26,000 people, including militants, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Israel strictly controls entry points into the Gaza Strip and restricts deliveries, making it difficult for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
Last November, Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly praised the agency for providing the essentials of life in Gaza, noting that it was “the only organization capable of doing so” and that Canada was “a significant donor” to is the agency.
At the time, Global Affairs Canada noted that Canada's funding of UNRWA's work in Gaza was not just for humanitarian assistance.
The money would also be intended to “identify, monitor and follow up on breaches of neutrality within the organization” and “strengthen the transparency and accountability of UNRWA’s approach to humanitarian principles,” the department said.
Jewish groups and previous Canadian governments have called out UNRWA over comments made by the agency's staff on social media that they say fail to maintain neutrality.
They have also raised concerns that U.N. aid could be diverted to Hamas, which Canada and others consider a terrorist organization.
Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government cut off Canadian funding for UNWRA in 2010 amid accusations that it was too closely linked to Hamas.
Funding was reinstated in 2016 under the federal Liberals.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 26, 2024.
– With files from The Associated Press.