Romania has suspended its voluntary payments to the United Nations’ Palestinian aid agency (UNRWA), the foreign ministry said on Monday.
In doing so, it joined a series of countries pending a full investigation into accusations that its employees were involved in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
“We express our full confidence that the U.N. investigation will clarify the situation as soon as possible,” the ministry in Bucharest said. “Until the investigation is concluded, the ministry will … not make any new voluntary contributions to UNRWA.”
The EU is demanding an “urgent” audit of the UN Palestinian refugee agency and says it is reviewing funding, following Israeli allegations that some staff participated in Hamas’s attack.
The audit should be led by European Commission-appointed experts and be conducted alongside a UN investigation into the claims, commission spokesman Eric Mamer told journalists.
The EU was the agency’s third largest funder in 2022, behind the U.S. and Germany, which have already announced funding freezes.
