The United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) was established in 1949 to help Palestinians expelled from their places of origin after the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. Today, the organization helps nearly six million people in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel and in neighboring countries, where refugees have been settled for decades.
Their work is essentially humanitarian: providing food, shelter, education and health to Palestinians who have fewer resources and who currently continue to live in refugee camps in Palestine or elsewhere. In the Gaza Strip – where the majority of the more than two million residents are displaced from the towns that became Israel – UNRWA played a fundamental role well before the war.
Currently, after more than a year of Israeli offensive against Gaza which has caused a profound humanitarian crisis, almost the entire population depends on UNRWA aid to meet its basic needs and hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes due to bombing. refugees in the agency’s premises.
What will happen to humanitarian aid in Gaza?
UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini warned in a letter to the United Nations General Assembly that the legislation adopted by Israel could cause “the collapse of UNRWA operations in the West Bank (including Jerusalem- East) and Gaza, and seriously undermine the entire United Nations humanitarian operation in Palestine.” Gaza, which depends on the UNRWA platform.
Lazzarini added in this letter that “in the absence of a viable alternative to the agency, the measures [adoptadas por Israel] “They will worsen the suffering of the Palestinians.”
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government assured that, within 90 days of implementing the new laws, it would seek a way to deliver humanitarian aid and would continue to provide it to Gazans “in a manner that does not threaten the safety of residents. Israel.”
Last January, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to “urgently provide basic services and humanitarian assistance” to Gazans, but ten months later the amount of aid entering the Strip is insufficient, as all humanitarian organizations denounce. Even Israel’s main ally, the United States, recently called on the Israeli government to allow more aid to enter and pass through more border crossings from its territory.
How did the international community react?
Since the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) passed the two laws against UNRWA on Monday, many countries around the world have condemned the new legislation and warned of its consequences, including some of UNRWA’s staunchest allies and advocates. Israel, like Germany or the United Kingdom. So far, no one has proposed taking steps to ensure that Israel does not enforce the laws.
One of the laws bans all UNRWA activities on Israeli soil (including the eastern part of Jerusalem annexed by Israel) and is expected to come into force in three months. The other law leaves agency personnel without immunity and prevents Israeli officials and institutions from having any contact with UNRWA.
Both make impossible the agency’s coordination with Israel, essential for operating in the occupied Palestinian territories, because these are under the control of Israeli authorities. Without going any further, access to the West Bank and Gaza is controlled by Israel, so any convoy or humanitarian worker must have authorization to enter and work in both areas.
The organization currently in charge of managing humanitarian aid in Gaza and, in general, communicating with UN agencies and NGOs is COGAT (acronym for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories).
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he would bring this matter to the UN General Assembly and keep it informed of developments, also recalling that “national legislation cannot modify the obligations of Israel” under the Charter of the United Nations and international humanitarian law.
Who can replace UNRWA?
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has called on other UN agencies and international organizations to continue providing aid to the Palestinians, such as the World Food Program, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Fund for United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). However, these same agencies have stated that they do not have the capacity to replace UNRWA. The UN Secretary General himself declared that “there is no alternative to UNRWA”.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) assured that “the absence of UNRWA in the occupied Palestinian territories, particularly in Gaza, would be catastrophic”. Its director general, Amy Pope, told a press conference in Geneva that UNRWA was “the backbone of infrastructure in places like Gaza” and that “there is no way IOM can do what UNRWA did.”
UNICEF spokesperson James Elder also warned that if UNRWA cannot function, “we risk seeing the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza.” Elder explained that his organization distributes aid to Gaza with the support of UNRWA and that, without this support, it will not be able to bring vaccines, nutritional supplements, hygiene kits or winter clothing to children who need it.
World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Tarik Jašarević admitted that no agency can match UNRWA in providing medical assistance, as UNRWA has around 3,000 health workers. health in Gaza – out of a total of 13,000 employees in the Strip.
How does Israel justify this measure?
Even before the war in Gaza, Israel disapproved of UNRWA, an agency that represents Palestinian refugees and their right of return, recognized by UN resolutions. Lazzarini made clear that Israel’s decision “does not end the refugee status of Palestinians, which exists independently of the provision of services by UNRWA, but seriously harms their lives and their future.”
Lazzarini also denounced that “the legislation comes after a year of blatant disregard for the lives of UNRWA personnel, its facilities and its humanitarian operations in Gaza, and after intense diplomatic campaigns by the Israeli government directed against donors of UNRWA with disinformation to undermine funding.” .”
Earlier this year, more than 15 countries suspended funding to UNRWA after Israel accused 12 agency employees of participating in the October 7 Hamas attacks (in which more than 1,200 people were killed). dead and 251 were kidnapped). In August, the UN concluded that only nine of these workers could have links to the Islamist group, while an independent investigation commissioned by the United Nations indicated that Israel had not provided evidence demonstrating involvement. UNRWA personnel in Hamas attacks.
The Israeli government continues to link UNRWA to the Palestinian group’s military activities, accusing its employees of being Hamas militants and Hamas of using the agency’s facilities to hide, store weapons or launch attacks. In fact, one of the bills initially introduced by Knesset members aimed to designate UNRWA as a terrorist organization, but was ultimately rejected.
