Australian officials scrambled to understand allegations before Unrwa funding suspended, documents show

Foreign minister Penny Wong, announced on Saturday 27 January that the $6m in top-up funding to Unrwa would be paused ‘temporarily’ after claims about the Hamas-led attack on 7 October.Foreign minister Penny Wong, announced on Saturday 27 January that the $6m in top-up funding to Unrwa would be paused ‘temporarily’ after claims about the Hamas-led attack on 7 October.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Larsen promised to “continue to follow up” with Unrwa. He later confirmed he and a colleague were due to speak with the head of Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini, early on the Saturday US time.Hours later, Wong issued a statement saying Australia was “deeply concerned” by the allegations and would “temporarily pause disbursement of recently announced funding”.

The $6m in Australian funding was paused not long after Wong announced it on her trip to the Middle East in mid-January. Delaney cited figures showing 1.9 million people, or 85% of the population of Gaza, were internally displaced and 2.2 million people were “at imminent risk of famine”.

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