Israel Bans Aid Agency UNRWA From Operating in Country

Displaced Palestinians sit on benches as they wait outside a clinic of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on Jan. 28, 2024. AFP via Getty Images

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has voted to approve two laws banning the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from operating on Israeli soil and severing all dealings with it, a move that has raised concerns over the impact on humanitarian aid in Gaza amid the ongoing conflict.

On Monday, the first law, banning the agency from operating in Israel, passed by 92–10. The second law, terminating all official connections with the agency, was voted through by 87–9.

The laws, due to come into effect in 90 days, prevent Israeli officials from having any communications with UNRWA and strip the agency’s staff of their legal immunities.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said UNRWA would be prevented from doing its work in Gaza if the laws were implemented. More than 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes since the recent conflict began, and there are widespread shortages of food, water, and medicine in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said UNRWA has been collaborating with Hamas in Gaza. In January, The Times of Israel reported that Netanyahu told U.N. ambassadors in Jerusalem that the agency was “totally infiltrated” by the terrorist organization.

The United States temporarily halted funding in January over allegations that 12 UNRWA employees had taken part in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel.

Israel responded militarily after Hamas-led terrorists, following a plan drawn up by Yahya Sinwar, launched surprise attacks across the border into Israel last year, killing 1,200 people.

Sinwar was killed earlier this month after he was discovered in a bombed-out house in Gaza.

In August, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said, “For nine people, the evidence was sufficient to conclude that they may have been involved in the seventh of October attacks.”

The UNRWA USA national committee resumed funding in April, after “careful consideration and in close consultation with legal counsel.”

Reacting to news of the Knesset vote, Guterres said Israel was obliged under international law to help give aid to thousands of displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, Guterres said he had written to Netanyahu, warning him the legislation would be a “catastrophe.”

In an Oct. 29 statement posted on social media platform X, Guterres said: “If implemented, the laws adopted today by the Knesset of Israel would likely prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, with devastating consequences for Palestine refugees.

“I call on Israel to act consistently with its obligations under the Charter of the UN & international law. National legislation cannot alter those obligations. ... There is no alternative to UNRWA.”

He said he would be bringing the matter to the attention of the U.N. General Assembly.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during a daily briefing in New York on Monday that the United States had made it clear to Israel that it was “deeply concerned” by the legislation.

“There’s nobody that can replace them right now in the middle of the crisis,” Miller said, referring to UNRWA. ”We continue to urge the Government of Israel to pause the implementation of this legislation. We urge them not to pass it at all. And we will consider next steps based on what happens in the days ahead.”

Miller said that if UNRWA goes away, “you will see civilians—including children, including babies—not be able to get access to food and water and medicine that they need to live, and we find that, frankly, unacceptable.”

He said humanitarian assistance was not getting to people in Jabalia in northern Gaza, where the Israeli military is fighting Hamas terrorists.

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said in an Oct. 28 social media post: “Tonight’s vote in Israel to ban UNRWA is disastrous and shameful. It’ll go down in history as the moment Israel voted to cut off an irreplaceable humanitarian pipeline to a humanitarian disaster zone.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement, “It is the legal and moral obligation of the international community to take a strong stance against attempts to ban UNRWA, which was established by a U.N. General Assembly resolution.”

Turkey’s ministry said it will continue to provide financial support to the agency.

Last week, the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, told a press conference in Berlin that the agency is close to a breaking point for its operations.

“I will not hide the fact that we might reach a point that we won’t be able anymore to operate,” he said. “We are very near to a possible breaking point. When will it be? I don’t know. But we are very near to that.”

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.