Ireland pledges funding for UNRWA after US-led withdrawal of support
Ireland has pledged €20 million ($16.7 million) funding for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees after the US and its allies suspended their assistance for the agency based on unsubstantiated Israeli allegations.
On Thursday, Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defense, Micheál Martin, affirmed his country's insistence on sustaining its assistance to the agency.
Martin, who was speaking at a joint news conference with Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), Philippe Lazzarini in Dublin, called the agency's work a "lifeline" for the displaced Palestinians in Gaza. "There is no replacement for UNRWA's work in Gaza," the Irish top diplomat said.
In support of the illegal Zionist entity and its killing of Palestinians in Gaza Strip, the United States along with Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Estonia, Japan, Austria, and Romania withdrew their financial support for the agency.
The US-led withdrawal of support for UNRWA denies the agency funding worth about $450 million, which amounts to almost half of the agency's budget for 2024.
The developments come amid a genocidal war that the Israeli regime has been waging against Gaza following the Palestinian operation.
The United States, Israel’s biggest ally, has provided the occupying regime with a raft of arms and ammunition since the initiation of the Gaza war.
Washington has also vetoed UN Security Council resolutions that called on the regime to cease its aggression.
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