Middle East Eye reports:

The British government has a plan in place to resume funding to the United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, Middle East Eye has learnt from a parliamentary source with direct knowledge of the matter.

A second source told MEE that a little over a week after the UK announced it was pausing its funding to the UN agency, Foreign Secretary David Cameron acknowledged the decision had been “too hasty” and was looking for face-saving measures to reinstate it.

The UK announced on 27 January that it was temporarily pausing funding to Unrwa in response to Israeli allegations that 12 staff members in Gaza had been involved in the 7 October Hamas-led attack, in which Palestinian fighters killed more than 1,100 people, mostly civilians, in communities near Gaza.

By early February, Cameron told the second source, the UK was urging the agency to announce measures that could be put before parliament to justify the UK resuming funding.

According to the source, Cameron said “they were urging Unrwa to announce investigations not just into the allegations against the 12, but broader due diligence”.

The source added: “He acknowledged that they were too hasty, and now they want Unrwa to help them dig themselves out of it, because they didn’t want to assist Israel in destroying the organisation.” [Continue reading…]