EYAD BABA / AFP
Gazans jostle to receive bags of flour at a Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) aid distribution center in Deir el-Balah, November 3, 2024.
INTERNATIONAL – Towards the end of humanitarian aid for war victims? Israel officially informed the UN on Monday, November 4, of the cancellation of the agreement with the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). In response, UNRWA said it feared “the collapse” of the aid system in the Gaza Strip, ravaged for a year by Israeli bombings targeting Hamas in response to the October 7 attack.
This announcement follows the vote by the Israeli Parliament on October 28 for a law prohibiting the activities of UNRWA on its soil and in the Palestinian territories. “If this law is implemented, it risks causing the collapse of the international humanitarian operation in the Gaza Strip, an operation of which UNRWA is the backbone,” Jonathan Fowler, a spokesperson for the organization, lashed out at AFP.
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“These bills increase the suffering of Palestinians and constitute nothing less than collective punishment”the Commissioner General of Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini, had already reacted last week.
“UNRWA is the main means by which essential assistance is provided to Palestinian refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”recalled for his part the head of the UN, Antonio Guterres, in reaction to the Knesset vote. The UN Secretary General even sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday asking him to maintain the activities of UNRWA.
Israel's agreement with the UN agency dates back to 1967. UNRWA provides essential aid and assistance to Palestinian refugees in the Palestinian Territories and several other countries in the region. Its cancellation would be a major blow to humanitarian work in Gaza if it were implemented, many experts also believe.
But Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz rejects this argument, saying that only part of the humanitarian aid was delivered to Gaza through UNRWA. “The vast majority of humanitarian aid in Gaza is delivered by other organizations, and only 13% of this aid comes from UNRWA”he said, in a press release this Monday.
Israel accuses UNRWA employees of being “members of Hamas”
Israel, long critical of the agency, recently accused UNRWA employees of having participated in the massacre perpetrated on its soil by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in the strip. from Gaza. “Many employees are members of Hamas, [l’Unrwa] part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not the solution,” claims the Israeli government also accusing the agency of using “ their installations for terrorist purposes.
An investigation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services, published in August, found that nine employees “may have been involved” in this armed attack. The people concerned were dismissed.
The ban also raised concerns that UNRWA employees in the occupied West Bank could face problems moving from one location to another as well as accessing East Jerusalem or Israel, without coordination with Israeli authorities.
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