Knee-jerk reaction to Tel Aviv's UNRWA charges shows some countries putting cart before horse

Israel's intention in alleging that 12 staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East were involved in Hamas' Oct 7 attacks is open to question.

The head of Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate, Aharon Haliva, met with senior United States officials on Friday, and gave them "specific names and which organizations they are affiliated with, whether Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad or others, and what exactly they did on Oct 7", and showed them that "we had solid intelligence from different sources", Israeli officials familiar with the matter told the media.

The US State Department said it had "temporarily paused additional funding" to the agency in the wake of the allegations. And Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, the Netherlands and Japan soon followed suit. This means the UNRWA, which is in charge of providing subsistence for millions of refugees in Gaza, who are already struggling with hunger, will soon be put out of operation if no new sources of funding are forthcoming in a short time.