2 weeks Ago
ISRAEL HAS SAID it has formally notified the United Nations of its decision to sever ties with UNRWA, the agency supporting Palestinian refugees, after lawmakers in the Knesset voted to ban the organisation. “On the instruction of Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the ministry of foreign affairs notified the UN of the cancellation of the agreement between the State of Israel and UNRWA,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “UNRWA, the organisation whose employees participated in the October 7 massacre and many of whose employees are Hamas operatives, is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution,” Katz was quoted as saying.
Officially called the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA provides a wide range of services and employs around 30,000 people – mostly Palestinians. Israel’s parliament last month , despite condemnation from the international community, including its ally the United States and Ireland. The ban on the UN agency – which has provided essential aid and assistance across Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees elsewhere for more than seven decades – would be a blow to humanitarian work in Gaza if implemented, according to experts.
But Katz dismissed the argument, claiming that only a part of aid was being delivered into Gaza by UNRWA. “Even now, the vast majority of humanitarian aid to Gaza is delivered through other organisations, and only 13% of it is delivered through UNRWA,” Katz said. “The State of Israel is committed to international law and will continue to facilitate the entrance of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip in a manner that does not harm the security of the citizens of Israel.
” In January 2024, Israel accused 12 UNRWA staff members of taking part in the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023, leading many Western countries to temporarily suspend funding for the organisation. The United States was chief among those states that suspended funding and it remains paused. In September 2024, a bill aimed at restoring the funds was introduced in the US Congress but it .
Ireland was among the countries that did not withdraw funding. In response to the 7 October accusations, UNRWA suspended 19 named workers (the number rose from 12 to 19 between January and April). A series of UN probes found some “neutrality related issues” at the agency, and determined that nine employees “may have been involved” in the 7 October attack, but found no evidence for Israel’s wider allegations.
The ban has also raised fears UNRWA employees in the occupied West Bank could potentially face problems moving from one place to another as well as accessing east Jerusalem or Israel because they would lose their ability to coordinate with the Israeli authorities to cross checkpoints. The same fears apply to visas and permits delivered by Israeli authorities. UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies have accused Israeli authorities of restricting aid flows into Gaza, where almost all the territory’s 2.
4 million people have been displaced at least once during the war. Israel also , a claim that remains unsubstantiated. The UN says Israel has not provided any evidence for its claims.
In a year of war in the Gaza Strip, UNRWA 233 of its workers have been killed in the territory..
