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Australia, Italy and others halt funding to U.N. agency over claim staff involved in Hamas attack on Israel
Several key donor countries to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees joined the U.S. and said on Saturday they would halt their funding following accusations by Israel that several UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
The U.S. State Department said on Friday they suspended payments to the organization. The U.S. underlined that “UNRWA plays a critical role in providing lifesaving assistance to Palestinians, including essential food, medicine, shelter, and other vital humanitarian support.” The UNRWA is the United Nations humanitarian agency that serves Palestinians.
The organization said it had opened an investigation into allegations from Israel that some of its staff members participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said 12 UNRWA employees had been accused of participating.
OMAR EL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images
Canada’s International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen also announced on Friday that Ottawa had “temporarily paused any additional funding to UNRWA while it undertakes a thorough investigation into these allegations.”
UNRWA responded by saying it had fired several staff over Israel’s accusations, promising a thorough investigation into the claims, which were not specified, while Israel vowed to stop the agency’s work in Gaza after the war. U.N’s top spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was briefed on the situation by UNWRA head Philippe Lazzarini and was “horrified by this news and has asked Mr. Lazzarini to investigate this matter swiftly.”
Here are what the countries that have suspended funding have said about the allegations:
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Saturday that while UNRWA provides “vital, life saving work”, Brisbane would “temporarily pause disbursement of recent funding.”
“We welcome UNRWA’s immediate response, including terminating contracts and launching an investigation,” she said on the social media platform X.
Finland, which had a four-year agreement to provide five million euros ($5.4 million) annually to UNRWA, suspended its payments and called for an “an independent and thorough investigation”, in a statement from its foreign ministry.
“We must make sure that not a single euro of Finland’s money goes to Hamas or other terrorists,” it said.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said it was joining the ranks of those suspending funding, adding, “We are committed to providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population while protecting Israel’s security.”
Switzerland, which has made annual contributions of around 20 million Swiss francs ($23 million) to UNRWA, said Saturday no decision would be taken on the 2024 payment until the accusations were clarified.
“Switzerland has zero tolerance for all forms of support for terrorism, and for calls to hatred or incitement to violence,” it added.
Dutch Minister for Trade and Development Geoffrey van Leeuwen announced a freeze in funding for UNRWA while the investigation is ongoing, saying the government was “extremely shocked.”
“The accusation is that the attack was committed on Oct. 7 with UN money, with our money,” he told public broadcaster NOS on Saturday.
The British government said it was “appalled by the allegations” made by Israel and would be “temporarily pausing any future funding” while the Foreign Office reviewed the claims. The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, has vowed to hold “accountable, including through criminal prosecution”, any agency employee found to have been involved in “acts of terror.”
Canada’s International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen also announced on Friday that Ottawa had “temporarily paused any additional funding to UNRWA while it undertakes a thorough investigation into these allegations.”
Guterres pledged to conduct an “urgent and comprehensive independent review of UNRWA,” Dujarric said.
Haley Ott contributed to this report.
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Sen. Thom Tillis says “the scope” of Helene damage in North Carolina “is more like Katrina”
As recovery missions and repairs continue in North Carolina more than a week after Hurricane Helene carved a path of devastation through the western part of the state, the state’s Republican Sen. Thom Tillis called for more resources to bolster the relief effort and likened the damage to Hurricane Katrina’s mark on Louisiana in 2005.
“This is unlike anything that we’ve seen in this state,” Tillis told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday morning. “We need increased attention. We need to continue to increase the surge of federal resources.”
Hurricane Helene ripped through the Southeast U.S. after making landfall in Florida on Sept. 26 as a powerful Category 4 storm. Helene brought heavy rain and catastrophic flooding to communities across multiple states, including Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, with North Carolina bearing the brunt of the destruction. Officials previously said hundreds of roads in western North Carolina were washed out and inaccessible after the storm, hampering rescue operations, and several highways were blocked by mudslides.
Tillis said Sunday that most roads in the region likely remained closed due to flooding and debris. Water, electricity and other essential services still have not been fully restored.
“The scope of this storm is more like Katrina,” he said. “It may look like a flood to the outside observer, but again, this is a landmass roughly the size of the state of Massachusetts, with damage distributed throughout. We have to get maximum resources on the ground immediately to finish rescue operations.”
Hurricane Katrina left more than 1,000 people dead after it slammed into Louisiana’s Gulf Coast in August 2005, flooding neighborhoods and destroying infrastructure in and around New Orleans as well as in parts of the surrounding region. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. in the last 50 years, and the costliest storm on record.
The death toll from Hurricane Helene is at least 229, CBS News has confirmed, with at least 116 of those deaths reported in North Carolina alone. Officials have said they expect the death toll to continue to rise as recovery efforts were ongoing, and a spokesperson for the police department in Asheville told CBS News Friday their officers were “actively working 75 cases of missing persons.”
On Saturday, the U.S. Department of Transportation released $100 million in emergency funds for North Carolina to rebuild the roads and bridges damaged by the hurricane.
“We are providing this initial round of funding so there’s no delay getting roads repaired and reopened, and re-establishing critical routes,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris administration will be with North Carolina every step of the way, and today’s emergency funding to help get transportation networks back up and running safely will be followed by additional federal resources.”
President Biden previously announced that the federal government would cover “100%” of costs for debris removal and emergency protective measures in North Carolina for six months.
With North Carolina leaders working with a number of relief agencies to deal with the aftermath of the storm, Tillis urged federal officials to ramp up the resources being funneled into the state’s hardest-hit areas. The senator also addressed a surge in conspiracy theories and misinformation about the Biden Administration’s disaster response, which have been fueled by Republican political figures like former President Donald Trump.
Trump falsely claimed that Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the November presidential election, were diverting funds from Federal Emergency Management Agency that would support the relief effort in North Carolina toward initiatives for immigrants. He also said baselessly that the administration and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, were withholding funds because many communities that were hit hardest are predominantly Republican. Elon Musk has shared false claims about FEMA, too.
“Many of these observations are not even from people on the ground,” Tillis said of those claims. “I believe that we have to stay focused on rescue operations, recovery operations, clearing operations, and we don’t need any of these distractions on the ground. It’s at the expense of the hard-working first responders and people that are just trying to recover their lives.”
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