The steady and ruthless campaign by Israel to internationally defund the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), is unravelling. Within a matter of days, two internal investigations were commenced, various individuals sacked, and US$450 million worth of funding from donor states suspended. An abrupt wave of initial success in starving the agency followed, with a number of countries announcing plans to freeze funding. The bombast and blunder of the whole effort by Israel was further discoloured by claims that UNRWA staff had been victims of torture at the hands of the IDF in drafting the dossier. Those employees, claimed Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, “are military operatives in terror groups in Gaza”.
