WAHSINGTON: The White House said Tuesday it would “have to see real progress” before restoring its funding to the UN agency for Palestinians, the main aid agency operating in war-torn Gaza.
The comments from National Security Council spokesman John Kirby came after the US froze aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency following accusations by Israel that its staff may have participated in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.
A UN probe is looking into those accusations.
A separate independent review into UNRWA found some “neutrality-related issues” in its much-anticipated report released Monday. It noted Israel had yet to provide evidence for incendiary allegations that staff were members of terrorist organizations.
“In terms of our funding of UNRWA, that is still suspended. We’re gonna have to see real progress here before that gets changed,” Kirby said.
Many donor countries have resumed funding since Israel’s accusations, including Sweden, Canada, Japan, the EU and France — while others, including the United States and Britain — have continued to hold out.
“We welcome the results of this report and strongly support the recommendations in the report,” Kirby said, noting that the United States also faced legal constraints in restarting its funding.
Congress passed a bill signed into law by President Joe Biden last month that blocks US funding until March 2025.
UNRWA, which employs some 30,000 people, began operations in 1950 and provides services to nearly six million people across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The neutrality issues highlighted in Monday’s report included staff sharing biased political posts on social media and the use of a small number of textbooks with “problematic content” in some UNRWA schools.

CAIRO: Egypt has condemned the repeated Israeli violations of international law and international humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip.
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “It is regrettable and shameful that violations of international law and humanitarian values continue in such a flagrant manner in the 21st century, in full view and hearing of all countries, international organizations, and the Security Council.”
This came during statements made by ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid regarding the discovery of mass graves in the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Egypt said it condemned violations of international law including the targeting of civilians, displaced persons, and medical teams by Israeli forces.
Abu Zeid reiterated the need for immediate intervention by the international community to stop such violations and to conduct the necessary investigations to hold perpetrators accountable.
He added that the killing, destruction, and violence witnessed in the West Bank over the past few weeks is no less dangerous, further aggravates the crisis, and threatens to escalate tensions across all occupied Palestinian territories.
He called for an immediate halt to the violence and attacks by settlers, protected by Israeli forces, against Palestinian civilians, their property, and homes in the West Bank.
The bodies of over 200 Palestinians, including patients, have been uncovered so far in mass graves at the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza’s Khan Younis since Saturday, according to media reports.