Israeli right-wing activists take part in a protest blocking the entrance to the UNRWA, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, headquarters in Jerusalem on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. On Sunday, Israel officially informed the United Nations that it was severing its relationship with UNRWA. File Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo
Israel has officially notified the United Nations that it is banning the organization’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees from operating in the Israel-occupied Palestinian territories, accusing the humanitarian aid program of being “part of the problem.”
In a letter dated Sunday but circulated online Monday, Foreign Ministry Director-General Jacob Blitshtein of Israel told U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres that was withdrawing from the 1967 agreement with UNRWA that allowed the relief agency to operate in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Advertisement
The move comes after Israel’s Knesset parliament passed a pair of bills last Monday to ban UNRWA. The legislation is to go into effect in three months.
UNRWA has long been championed as the main and most important humanitarian program in Gaza, providing food and medical supplies to a region experiencing an ongoing humanitarian crisis as a result of Israel’s war against Iran-backed Hamas.
In the letter, Blitshtein assured Guterres that Israel “will continue to work with international partners, including other United nations agencies, to ensure the facilitation of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not undermine Israel’s security.” Advertisement
“Israel expects the United Nations to contribute to and cooperate in this effort,” he said.
The U.N. agency, formed in 1949 to help Palestinian refugees created by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, has long been criticized by Israel on charges of extending the Palestinian conflict.
Those criticisms have been amplified since the war between Israel and Hamas began over a year ago when the Iran-backed militia launched a bloody assault on Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis. Another 251 were also kidnapped in the assault.
Israel has accused UNRWA of harboring Hamas militants, some of whom allegedly participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, strike. UNRWA has responded by firing nine employees where evidence indicated they may have been involved in the attack. It has also launched dozens of investigations across its 33,000-man workforce, finding only 66 cases of alleged neutrality breaches, some of which have not been substantiated.
In a separate statement Monday, Foreign Minister Israel Katz doubled down on the accusations, alleging that “many” of UNRWA’s employees were Hamas operatives, making it “part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution.”
He continued by rejecting the oft-repeated statement that there is no substitute for UNRWA in Gaza, claiming the majority of aid getting into the Palestinian enclave is being delivered by other organizations. Advertisement
“The State of Israel is committed to international law and will continue to cooperate with UN organizations and international organizations that are not tainted by terrorism for the benefit of bringing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, in a way that does not harm the security of Israeli citizens,” he said.
