Israel faced an international backlash on Tuesday after its parliament approved a bill banning the main United Nations aid agency working in the devastated Gaza Strip, where dozens of people are being killed every day.
Despite global concerns, including from Israel’s ally the United States, lawmakers in the Knesset overwhelmingly voted to ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) from working in Israel and annexed East Jerusalem.
The lawmakers also passed a measure prohibiting Israeli officials from working with UNRWA and its employees.
Israel strictly controls all humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza, where its brutal military offensive has killed over 43,000 people – mostly civilians, since October 2023.
UNRWA, which has been operating since 1949, has provided essential aid, schooling and healthcare across the Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees elsewhere for more than seven decades.
These include some six million Palestinian refugees who were made stateless after they were uprooted from their homes by the establishment of Israel in 1948 and have been living in refugee camps both in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, as well as in neighbouring Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Around three-quarters of the Gaza Strip’s population is made up of refugees from areas taken over by Israel in 1948 and their descendants.
UNRWA has been providing emergency relief, but it has evolved to offer education, healthcare, and social services to Palestinians due to the unresolved status of their displacement and the absence of a political solution that would allow them to return or resettle permanently.
Israel recently accused several UNRWA staff members of involvement in the October 7 attacks without substantiating evidence.
Following these allegations, UNRWA – which employs some 30,000 staff members – conducted an investigation through its Office of Internal Oversight Services.
It found no concrete evidence implicating the majority of the accused staff, although it terminated nine employees in the interest of maintaining its neutrality and safety standards for operations.
Western concern
Several of Israel’s Western allies voiced disquiet at Israel’s banning of the agency, with Israel’s main ally the United States as well as the UK voicing deep concern.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller commented on Monday that the legislation “could have implications for US law,” which prohibits arms transfers to countries that obstruct humanitarian assistance.
He emphasised UNRWA’s “irreplaceable role” in Gaza, where it is at the forefront of delivering critical humanitarian aid during the war.
“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. We find that unacceptable,” he said.
He further urged Israel to reconsider the law’s implementation, adding that the US would monitor developments and respond accordingly.
The US State Department cautioned that the new legislation might adversely impact US-Israel relations.
Countries such as Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom expressed solidarity with UNRWA, voicing concerns over the ban’s repercussions.
In a joint statement, foreign ministers from seven nations urged Israel to reconsider the legislation, labelling UNRWA as “essential for delivering life-saving aid and critical services to Palestinian refugees”.
Germany, which has staunchly defended Israel throughout its indiscriminate war on Gaza, warned it would “effectively make UNRWA’s work in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem impossible… jeopardising vital humanitarian aid for millions of people”.
Palestinian reaction
Aida Touma-Suleiman, an Arab-Israeli politician from the Hadash party, decried the ban as an attempt to “strip Palestinian refugees of their rights and status, creating new refugees by the day”.
Palestinian Authority presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh emphasised that the move was at odds with international law and constituted defiance of the UN resolutions, the official Wafa news agency reported.
The Palestinian foreign ministry called the Israeli Knesset as “an occupation tool” and said that “Israel has no sovereignty over the land of the occupied state of Palestine, including Jerusalem”, the news agency reported.
Hamas said in a Telegram statement that it “strongly rejects and denounces the vote”, and regarded the move as “part of the Zionists’ war and aggression on our people to liquidate our national cause and the Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homes”.
The group urged the international community and the UN to “take decisive stances against this rogue Zionist entity that defies the international will and UN institutions”.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also regarded in a Telegram statement the ban as “a continuation of the extermination war and criminal policies [of Israel]… and public insult to the UN”.
Arab states
Gaza war mediator Qatar condemned the Israeli parliament’s decision in a foreign ministry statement.
“We emphasise that stopping support for UNRWA will have disastrous consequences,” ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told reporters.
“The international community cannot stand silent in the face of this disregard for its international institutions,” he added.
The foreign ministry of Jordan, which also hosts UNRWA offices and a large Palestinian refugee population, condemned the ban as a “continuation of Israel’s frantic efforts to assassinate the UN agency politically”.
United Nations, rights groups
UN agencies warned that Israel’s decision could result in the deaths of more children and represent a form of collective punishment for Gazans if fully implemented.
“If UNRWA is unable to operate, it’ll likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who has worked extensively in Gaza since 7 October.
“So a decision such as this suddenly means that a new way has been found to kill children.”
UN chief Antonio Guterres said the Israeli law could have “devastating consequences” if implemented and “would likely prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work”.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini condemned the new restrictions as a flagrant violation of international law, calling it a deliberate attempt to undermine the agency’s work in supporting Palestinian refugees.
The World Health Organization’s Tarik Jasarevic said that about a third of the healthcare workers helping with the ongoing polio vaccination campaign for children in Gaza work with UNRWA.
The UK-based Amnesty International said the ban on UNRWA was “inhumane” and “outrageous”.
“This appalling, inhumane law will only exacerbate the suffering of Palestinians who have endured unimaginable hardship since the horrific attacks by Hamas and other armed groups in southern Israel one year ago, and whose need for global support is greater than ever,” the group said in a statement.
“The international community must be quick to condemn it in the strongest possible terms and exert any influence they have on the Israeli government to repeal it.”
Meanwhile, Israel-based NGO Adalah said the move was a “deliberate attempt to fundamentally undermine UNRWA and its essential mission of supporting the relief, education, and human development of Palestinian refugees”.
“Specifically, the laws aim to strip Palestinians – who were forcibly displaced from their homes during the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 war – of their status as refugees and their right of return,” it said.
“This legislation not only contravenes the basic principles of human rights that led to the UN General Assembly’s founding of UNRWA, but also violates a range of Israel’s international legal obligations, including those under the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The international community must hold Israel accountable.”
