Spain pledges to continue funding for UNRWA amid Israeli propaganda

Earlier this week, several Western nations cut vital funding to the UN's aid body carrying out critical humanitarian work in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and abroad for Palestinians.

The announcements followed allegations by Israel that several employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) were allegedly involved in the October 7 cross-border operation by the resistance group Hamas.

However, some Western nations have defied the primarily US-led punitive action by continuing to provide funds to the agency, considered the lifeline for millions of suffering Palestinians, facing one of the most brutal military campaigns by Israel since October 7.

The barrage of Israeli airstrikes, as well as a ground offensive, has killed nearly 27,000 Palestinians - largely women and children – in the besieged enclave.

Like Norway and Ireland's decision to continue support for UNRWA, European nation Spain has also pledged its commitment to fund the UN agency.

Spain's move has led some publications to emphasise how it highlights the European nations' "nuanced position."

On Monday, the Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares pointed out his country would maintain its ongoing relations with UNRWA without changes to funding.

Albares described the UN agency as "'indispensable" and said such contributions "alleviate the terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza."

Rough estimates say that at least 85 percent of Gaza's more than two million population is internally displaced, while 60 percent of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed amid acute food scarcity, medicine and clean water.

Last year, Spain's contribution to the agency was reportedly around €18.5 million, while €10 million was given the green light in December.

Albares also said his country had tripled funding to Palestine in recent months to around €50 million ($54 million), including UNRWA funding.

'We will not modify our relationship with UNRWA although we are closely monitoring the internal investigation and the results it may yield due to the actions of a dozen of the around 30,000 people who work for this UN agency,' Albares said in the Foreign Affairs Commission in the Congress of Deputies.

Spain's junior coalition party Sumar has vehemently defended the funding and considers any cuts “an attack against humanity" and tantamount to "collective punishment."

The Podemos Party's leader, Ione Belarra, has pushed to see the Iberian peninsula nation become an exemplary case of increasing funding amid the onslaught in Gaza.

The Spanish foreign minister has also told lawmakers that Spain backs Friday's ruling by the top UN court that calls for Israel to prevent genocide.

"We urge the integral compliance with this sentence by all parties. We request an urgent ceasefire and the entrance of humanitarian aid," Albares said.

He also has called it a "viable" option to have a Palestinian state, insisting that 88 nations have lent their weight to the idea.

"We will not resign ourselves to watching more innocent women, men, and children killed in Gaza and more suffering of Palestinian families," Albares said.