An Israeli ban on the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) comes into effect today as Israel warns that it will “cease all cooperation” with the aid organization.
“UNRWA must halt its activities and vacate all its facilities in Jerusalem,” Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told UN Security Council members on Tuesday.
In late October, the Israeli parliament approved two bills, one barring UNRWA from operations within Israel, and another prohibiting Israeli authorities from any contact with UNRWA. The agency is a critical lifeline for millions of Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, including in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The vote was swiftly criticized by UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini, who said it violated international law and was “the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role toward providing human-development assistance and services to Palestine refugees.”
The ban came after Israel accused some UNRWA employees of participating in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which more than 1,200 people were killed. UNRWA has long maintained that Israel has not provided it with evidence against its former employees. The agency says it had regularly provided Israel with a full list of its staff members and has accused Israel of detaining and torturing some of its staffers, coercing them into making false confessions about ties to Hamas. A UN investigation found that nine of the agency’s employees “may have” been involved in the October 7 attack, and no longer work there.
Some context: The agency, which began by assisting about 750,000 Palestinian refugees in 1950, now serves some 5.9 million across the Middle East, many of whom live in refugee camps – now cities within cities – in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
In the Gaza Strip, which has been ravaged by a devastating Israeli war for more than a year, UNRWA serves some 1.7 million Palestinian refugees. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, it assists around 871,500 refugees.
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