Britain has been urged to follow the United States, Canada, Australia and Italy and pause its funding for the United Nations’ aid agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

The UNRWA sacked 12 employees on Friday after they were accused of participating in Hamas’s October terrorist attacks on Israel.

Israel has vowed to ban the agency from operating in Gaza once the war is over.

The United States, Canada, Australia and Italy have all said they will no longer fund the UNRWA while the allegations are investigated.

Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, said Britain needed to follow suit and stop supporting an organisation he said was complicit with Hamas.

“The UK should follow the US in pausing support to UNRWA whilst these serious allegations are investigated,” he said.

“It’s an organisation staffed by many well meaning people, working in the most challenging circumstances, but whose leadership has fallen into a moral morass of complicity with Hamas, forever turning a blind eye to the terrorists.”

The US state department said on Friday that it had paused its funding “while we review these allegations and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them”.

It said allegations had been made against 12 UNRWA employees.

Ahmed Hussen, Canada’s aid minister, said the country was “deeply troubled by the allegations relating to some UNRWA employees”.

Allegations

Penny Wong, the foreign minister of Australia, said she was “deeply concerned” by the allegations and would “temporarily pause disbursement of recently announced funding” while the allegations are investigated.

Italy has also suspended its funding, with foreign minister Antonio Tajan saying on Saturday morning: “Allied countries have recently made the same decision.”

Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, said the government plans to stop the UNRWA ever operating in Gaza again when the war ends.

“Under my leadership, the foreign ministry aims to promote a policy ensuring that UNRWA will not be a part of the day after, addressing other contributing factors,” he said.

“We will work to garner bipartisan support in the US, the European Union and other nations globally for this policy aimed at halting UNRWA’s activities in Gaza.”

Intelligence

Hamas dismissed Israel’s allegations in a statement and urged the UN and other countries to not “cave in to the threats and blackmail”.

The UNRWA said on Friday that Israel had handed over intelligence alleging that a number of its workers were involved in October 7.

Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, had been briefed about the allegations, his spokesperson said.

“The Secretary-General is horrified by this news,” said Stephane Dujarric, adding that “an urgent and comprehensive independent review of UNRWA will be conducted”.

The UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO that scrutinises the work of the UN, earlier this month raised the alarm about alleged Hamas sympathies among multiple UN employees in Gaza.

The group cited hate posts in a Telegram group of about 3,000 UNRWA teachers in Gaza, praising the Hamas attackers as “heroes”.