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AAP
AAP
Tess Ikonomou

Australia faces growing calls to unfreeze Palestine aid

Penny Wong admitted she did not have all the evidence when halting humanitarian aid to a UN agency. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)

Australia is under mounting pressure to reinstate aid for Palestinian refugees after Penny Wong made a surprise admission about her decision to freeze the funding.

The foreign minister said she "did not have all the evidence" when halting humanitarian assistance to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

Australia's suspension followed Israeli allegations UN staff were involved in the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas.

The agency has since sacked several employees and launched investigations.

However, there are increasing doubts about the Israeli intelligence, with several nations that also froze funding stating they'd seen no evidence to support the allegations.

The UN also suggested Israel refused to make the information available.

Senator Wong confirmed she sought but had not received supporting evidence from Israel.

The minister also spoke with the head of the Palestinian relief agency but received no further details on the allegations or investigations.

Senator Wong has signalled she is keen to restart the funding, insisting the UN agency is the only organisation capable of delivering aid to the 400,000 Palestinians starving and 1.7 million people displaced in Gaza.

Nasser Mashni from the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network said it was shocking the federal government froze humanitarian aid without having seen all the facts.

"The public has real cause for concern and anger at the way the government appears to have made what really is a life-and-death decision for Palestinians in Gaza," he said on Friday.

It was hypocritical for Australia to act with such haste based on unverified allegations while failing to condemn Israel after it was ordered by the International Court of Justice to take action to prevent acts of genocide, Mr Mashni said.

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi called on the Labor government to immediately lift the funding suspension.

"It's not just wrong, but recklessly irresponsible when a minister suspends such critical humanitarian funding without having all the evidence," she said.

More than 1200 people were killed and 240 others taken hostage in the October 7 attack, according to Israeli officials.

Israel's subsequent war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 27,000 Palestinians and wounded another 66,000 people, according to the local health ministry.

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