Another top donor says it will resume funding the U.N. agency for Palestinians

JERUSALEM — Another top donor to the U.N. agency aiding Palestinians said Saturday that it would resume funding, weeks after more than a dozen countries halted hundreds of millions of dollars in support in response to Israeli allegations against the organization.

Sweden’s reversal came as a ship bearing tons of humanitarian aid was making preparations to leave Cyprus for Gaza after international donors launched a sea corridor to supply the territory.

Sweden’s decision followed similar ones by the European Union and Canada as the U.N. agency known as UNRWA warns that it could collapse.

Israel had accused 12 of UNRWA’s thousands of employees of participating in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage. Countries including the United States quickly suspended funding to UNRWA worth about $450 million, almost half its budget for the year. The U.N. has launched investigations, and UNRWA has been agreeing to outside audits to win back donor support.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 30,878 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. It doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tallies.

On the eve of Ramadan, Gaza residents scrambled for packages of food supplies dropped by U.S. and Jordanian military planes.

The U.S. military said that its planes on Saturday airdropped more than 41,000 “meal equivalents” and 23,000 bottles of water into northern Gaza, the hardest part of the enclave to access.

The sea corridor is backed by the EU together with the United States, the United Arab Emirates and other involved countries, and the European Commission has said that U.N. agencies and the Red Cross will also play a role.

The ship belonging to Spain’s Open Arms aid group was expected to make a pilot voyage to test the corridor as early as this weekend. The ship has been waiting at Cyprus’s port of Larnaca for permission. Israel has said it welcomed the maritime corridor, but cautioned that it would need security checks.

Open Arms founder Oscar Camps told The Associated Press that the ship pulling a barge with 200 tons of rice and flour would take two to three days to arrive at an undisclosed location where the group World Central Kitchen was constructing a pier to receive it. The group has 60 food kitchens throughout Gaza to distribute aid, he said.

President Joe Biden has announced a plan to build a temporary pier in Gaza to help deliver aid. United States officials said it will likely be weeks before the Gaza pier is operational.

Meanwhile, efforts to reach a cease-fire before Ramadan appeared stalled. Hamas said Thursday that its delegation had left Cairo until next week.

International mediators had hoped to alleviate some of the immediate crisis with a six-week cease-fire, which would have seen Hamas terrorists release some of the Israeli hostages it’s holding, Israel release some Palestinian prisoners and aid groups be given access for a major influx of assistance into Gaza.

Palestinian terrorists are believed to be holding around 100 hostages and the remains of 30 others captured during the Oct. 7 attack. Several dozen hostages were freed in a weeklong November truce.