(Washington) The US Congress unveiled a bill on Thursday that would ban any new direct funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which Israel accuses of links to Hamas.
This measure is included in a budget text of more than 1000 pages, which must at all costs be adopted before the end of the week to avoid the threat of a paralysis of the American federal state.
UNRWA has been at the center of controversy since Israel accused at the end of January 12 of its approximately 13,000 employees in Gaza of being involved in the deadly attack perpetrated on October 7 by Hamas on Israeli soil.
Around fifteen countries, notably the United States, had suspended the equivalent of more than half of the funds received in 2023 by UNRWA at the end of January. Since then, several countries have resumed their payments.
The plan to ban American funding to UNRWA has been strongly criticized by the left wing of the Democratic Party.
“I will vote against this bill which prohibits aid to children in Gaza who are dying of starvation,” announced progressive elected official Ro Khanna in a message on X, formerly Twitter.
The war in Gaza was sparked by the Hamas attack in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data. Israelis.
The Israeli military operation launched in retaliation left more than 31,923 dead in the Palestinian territory, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
According to the UN, the vast majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip are threatened by famine.