Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said the transfer of $26 million would support Palestinian refugees Gazans are starving and dying of infectious diseases due to a collapsed health system, making the support “more important than ever” OSLO: Norway on Wednesday announced a fresh donation to the financially stricken UN agency for Palestinian refugees as a humanitarian crisis grips the war-torn Gaza Strip. UNRWA plays a critical role in distributing aid and providing life-saving assistance to Gaza, where an Israeli siege during the four-month-old war has sparked dire shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel. But major donors to UNRWA including Britain, Germany and the United States suspended funding after allegations that some of its staff were involved in the unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the war. Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said the transfer of 275 million Norwegian kroner ($26 million) would support Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, including occupied east Jerusalem, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Gazans are starving and dying of infectious diseases due to a collapsed health system, making the support “more important than ever,” added International Development Minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim. Allegations that 12 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff took part in the October 7 attack does not justify the collective punishment of Gazans, said Eide, urging countries that suspended support “to think about the consequences.” UNRWA was established in 1949 to protect and assist Palestinian refugees and is almost entirely funded by voluntary contributions. “It is completely out of the question for Norway to back out of this commitment, at a time when Gaza is essentially in ruins,” Eide added. The war started with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Militants also seized around 250 hostages. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza, of whom 29 are believed to have died. Israel vowed to eliminate the Palestinian Islamist movement and launched air strikes and a ground offensive that have killed at least 27,708 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.