Israel’s ban on one of the most critical agencies providing humanitarian support in Gaza goes into effect Thursday, just as President Donald Trump’s attempt to suspend U.S. foreign aid has sent the international community into chaos.
The Israeli law expelling the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, leaves open myriad questions about who will fill gaps in critically needed humanitarian services currently provided by the U.N.’s largest agency in Gaza as the Palestinian territory takes stock of the destruction wrought by Israel’s 15-month siege.
Meanwhile, questions are mounting about the future of U.S. foreign aid. While the U.S. funneled billions of dollars of military aid to Israel, it gave far smaller sums to humanitarian relief in Palestine. The U.S. has historically been the largest financial donor to UNRWA, providing money that helped save the lives of refugees and support other humanitarian services. Amid pressure from Israel to freeze out UNRWA because of the alleged involvement of some staff in the October 7 attacks, last year President Joe Biden suspended UNRWA funding until March.
Trump’s executive order halting foreign aid for a minimum of 90 days has sparked widespread confusion around future U.S. involvement in U.N. support. The State Department issued a waiver on Tuesday making exceptions to the freeze on foreign assistance and humanitarian aid for certain services including food, shelter, subsistence, and essential supplies. It’s not clear if or how the waiver will impact aid efforts in Gaza and at U.N. agencies, which are already taking measures to rein in costs amid Trump’s sweeping cuts.
UNRWA has delivered more than two-thirds of all food aid since the start of the war and sheltered more than 1 million people. While other groups like the World Health Organization and UNICEF also operate in Gaza, the U.N. has said there is no alternative to scope and depth of the agency’s work there, which includes providing shelter, health care and medical aid, educational and employment services, and mental health support for children and adults.
Deliberate targeting of Gaza’s hospitals destroyed its health care system, according to a U.N. report published last month. More than 620,0000 students have no access to education, and the U.N. considers no place in the Gaza Strip safe to learn. Close to 70 percent of all structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. Clearing rubble from the siege could take more than two decades.
Which makes the new law restricting UNRWA and Trump’s campaign against foreign aid all the more painful, said UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma.
“I don’t think the agency has ever been in a situation like this one, a situation where we’re being attacked from all directions,” Touma said. “Whether it’s the finances, whether it’s the disinformation, misinformation, whether it’s our staff who get killed, whether it’s our facilities that have been attacked.”
The attacks have caused serious damage to the agency and hobbled funding, Touma said. Allegations by Israel of employee involvement in the October 7 attacks led the agency to terminate nine employees. At least nine countries including the U.S. suspended UNRWA funding following the allegations. A federal lawsuit linking UNRWA to Hamas, brought by survivors of the October 7 attacks, is pending.
Considering the scale of destruction, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas alone does not make Gaza safe overnight, Touma said. There are still huge amounts of unexploded ordnances throughout Gaza that create huge risk for people, including children.
“Even though the guns fell silent, Gaza is, by far, not safe,” Touma said.
Questions about aid or reconstruction don’t matter if the ceasefire doesn’t hold, said Harrison Mann, a senior fellow at the progressive foreign policy group Win Without War.
“I’m not fully prepared to call what happened an actual ceasefire,” Mann said. “Before even getting into the funding or the managers of aid, that’s not relevant until we’re certain that aid is going to be able to get through for more than a couple weeks, which I’m very doubtful of.”
The capacity to rebuild Gaza depends on what groups are allowed to be there, Mann said. “It’s certainly possible to rebuild or attempt to resuscitate Gaza without UNRWA, it’s just harder.”
The ban will undermine the ceasefire and sabotage Gaza’s future, UNRWA’s chief told members of the U.N. Security Council during a meeting on Tuesday. The agency’s expulsion will compromise aid in the West Bank.
“Curtailing our operations now — outside a political process, and when trust in the international community is so low — will undermine the ceasefire,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said. “It will sabotage Gaza’s recovery and political transition.”
Article by:Source:
