Ban on Israeli UN aid agency will lead to more suffering for Palestinians, says chief

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Head UN agency caring for Palestinian refugees said Wednesday that newly passed Israeli laws effectively banning its activities in Israel will leave a vacuum that will cost more lives and cause further instability in Gaza and the West Bank.

Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWAtold the Associated Press that the legislation is “ultimately directed against the Palestinians themselves,” effectively stripping them of their ability to function as a provider of life-saving services, education and health care.

UNRWA is the main aid procurement and distribution agency in the Gaza Strip, where almost the entire population of approximately 2.3 million Palestinians relies on the agency to survive in the face of Israel’s nearly 13-month-long war against the Hamas militant group.

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians find shelter in schools run by UNRWA. Other aid groups say the agency’s strong, decades-old infrastructure across the Gaza Strip is irreplaceable. So far, Israel has not presented any plan to provide the people of Gaza with food, medicine and other supplies in the absence of UNRWA.

Israel maintains that Hamas and other militants infiltrated UNRWA, using its facilities and accepting aid – for which Israel has provided little evidence. Laws passed by parliament this week sever all ties with UNRWA and ban its activities in Israel.

And because the agency’s operations in Gaza and the West Bank must be conducted through Israeli authorities, the regulations threaten to shut down its operations there as well. The regulations are to enter into force in three months.

If the Israeli decision is implemented, “it will be a complete disaster, it’s like throwing (throwing) the baby out with water,” Lazzarini told the AP, speaking in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, where he is attending a conference to discuss the Middle East conflict.

“That would create a vacuum. It would also increase instability in the West Bank and Gaza,” he said. “Ending UNRWA within three months would also mean more people would die in Gaza.”

He said the agency is looking for “creative ways to continue our operations.” He called for support from the UN General Assembly and donors to continue providing services and called on Israel to rescind the decision or extend the three-month grace period. He said Israel did not officially contact the agency after the legislation was passed.

For decades, UNRWA has operated a network of schools, medical facilities and other services around Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in neighboring Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. In Gaza especially, it plays a major role in maintaining social services and the economy, being the largest single employer in the territory and a source of education and health care for much of the population.

The regulations threaten to close all these institutions, which will impact the education and well-being of hundreds of thousands of children in the future, he added.

“Today in Gaza, one in two people under the age of 18, including 650,000 girls and boys living under the rubble, have experienced profound trauma at primary and secondary school age,” he said. “Getting rid of UNRWA is also a way of telling these children that you will have no future. We are simply sacrificing your education. Education is the one thing that has never, ever been taken away from Palestinians.”

UNRWA was created to help the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s founding. It currently provides support to refugees and their descendants, who number approximately 6 million across the region.

Lazzarini said the Israeli regulations are “the culmination of years of attacks on the agency.” He said “the goal is to deprive Palestinians of refugee status.”

International law grants Palestinian refugees and their descendants the right to return to their homes. Israel did not agree to their return, saying it would mean the end of the country’s Jewish majority. Israel has said refugees should be accepted by receiving countries, and officials often argue that UNRWA’s services keep Palestinians hopeful of return.

In a letter to the UN, Lazzarini said that the Israeli law and the campaign against the agency “will not result in the expiry of the refugee status of Palestinians, which exists independently of UNRWA services, but will seriously harm their lives and future.”

Israel claims, without providing evidence, that hundreds of Palestinian fighters work for UNRWA and that a dozen employees took part in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that started the latest war.

The UN dismissed nine staff members after an internal investigation found they may have been involved in the attack. UNRWA employs almost 30,000 workers across the region, including 13,000 in Gaza, most of them Palestinians. Israel also claims that Hamas fighters operate in UNRWA schools and other facilities in Gaza – and have hit many with airstrikes.

UNRWA denies knowingly assisting armed groups and says it is acting quickly to remove any suspected fighters from its ranks.

Lazzarini said Israel did not respond to UNRWA’s inquiries about details of other allegations, including that the agency’s premises are used by militant groups. He said the agency was unable to verify the claims due to continued fighting and called for an independent investigation.

At least 237 UNRWA staff have died in the Gaza war, a toll among UN personnel unseen in any other conflict. More than 200 UNRWA facilities were damaged or destroyed, resulting in the deaths of more than 560 people who took shelter there.

Lazzarini was speaking on the sidelines of a conference of the Global Alliance for a Two-State Solution, an initiative created by the government of Saudi Arabia and attended by foreign ministers from Arab, Muslim, African and European countries.

“If we want to succeed in any future political transition, we need an agency like UNRWA to address the education and basic health of Palestinian refugees” until there is a viable state or administration to do so, he said.

Anwer i El Deeb writes for the Associated Press. El Deeb reported from Beirut.