Millions of Palestinians rely on UNRWA. Why is the US suspending funding based on Israeli accusations?

‘It is an act of political retaliation that puts the lives of millions of people needlessly at risk, and an abdication on an international scale of the United States’ supposed western liberal values.’ Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu/Getty Images

On Friday, the United States suspended funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main lifeline for millions of Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Multiple western countries then followed the US’s lead. The given reason? The Israeli government alleges that a dozen people working for UNRWA (which employs around 13,000 people in Gaza alone) were involved in the assaults of 7 October that killed around 1,200 people in Israel.

There should be no question that the 7 October attacks were atrocities. But to punish the UNRWA – and, by extension, the Palestinian people as a whole – because of accusations against 12 people is unconscionable. It is an act of political retaliation that puts the lives of millions of people needlessly at risk and an abdication on an international scale of the United States’ supposed western liberal values.