The Israeli Foreign Ministry officially notified the UN on Monday of the termination of its agreement with UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, following the adoption of a law to this effect by the Knesset last week. The Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yaakov Blitstein, announced the cancellation of the 1967 agreement, which until then constituted the legal basis of relations between Israel and the agency. Foreign Minister Israel Katz justified the decision by stating that “UNRWA, whose employees participated in the October 7 massacre and many of whose members are Hamas militants, is part of the problem in Gaza and not part of the solution.”
This break will be implemented gradually over a three-month transition period, at the end of which all contact between Israeli entities and UNRWA will be prohibited. The agency, which employs 13,000 people in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, will have to find alternatives to continue its operations in these territories.
Minister Katz stressed that the majority of humanitarian aid in Gaza already passes through other organizations, with UNRWA accounting for only 13% of deliveries. “Do not believe those who tell you that there is no alternative to UNRWA,” he said, assuring that Israel “will continue to allow the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza in a manner that does not compromise the safety of its citizens.”
The move comes after the Israeli military and Shin Bet discovered civilian agency facilities used by Hamas, as well as members of the terrorist organization on UNRWA personnel lists. The agency's director, Philippe Lazzarini, called the measure “a collective punishment that should worry the whole world.”
