An Israeli ban on the United Nation’s agency for Palestinians because of its ties to terror organizations, including Hamas, came into effect on Thursday, a day after the Supreme Court rejected a petition from a rights group contesting the move.
UNRWA, formally titled the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, is now banned from operating on Israeli soil, and contact between it and Israeli officials is also forbidden.
The ban was passed by the Knesset in November with a wide majority, with the support of opposition parties, amid a series of revelations about employees of the agency who were actively involved in terror groups in the Gaza Strip, and repeated use of UNRWA infrastructure for terror activities. Israel has also provided evidence that the agency’s schools incited hatred of Israel and glorification of attacks against Israelis.
The Supreme Court noted in its Wednesday ruling against Palestinian human rights group Adalah’s petition that the legislation “prohibits UNRWA activity only on the sovereign territory of the State of Israel,” but “does not prohibit such activity in the areas of Judea-Samaria and the Gaza Strip,” referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.
The ban does apply, however, to East Jerusalem, where UNRWA has a field headquarters for its operations in the West Bank.
UNRWA has for decades run schools and clinics in East Jerusalem for tens of thousands of registered refugees there. The vast majority of East Jerusalem Palestinians have not sought Israeli citizenship, an option that is formally available to them, though applications are often rejected.
The Israeli ban on UNRWA, which has been backed by Washington, has drawn condemnation from aid groups and US allies.
In a statement reacting to the judgment, Adalah said the law would come into effect “disregarding the catastrophic humanitarian consequences.”
The agency says it has brought in 60 percent of the food aid that has reached Gaza since the war started with Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023, onslaught on Israel.
UNRWA was established in 1949 following Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. It provides aid, health, and education to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and neighboring Arab countries — Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.
Some 5.9 million people are registered as Palestinian refugees by UNRWA, because they are descended from Arabs displaced in the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948.
Israel has long argued that UNRWA perpetuates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by using this definition of refugee, the only case in which the status is passed down generationally.
It is one of two UN refugee agencies. While UNRWA caters to Palestinians, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is responsible for all other refugees around the world.
The hostility between Israel and the UN body intensified in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, with accusations that UNRWA employees participated in the assault.
“Humanitarian aid doesn’t equal UNRWA, and UNRWA doesn’t equal humanitarian aid. UNRWA equals an organization infested with Hamas terror activity,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein wrote on X ahead of the ban.
“This is why, beginning on January 30 and in accordance with Israeli law, Israel will have no contact with UNRWA.”
Government spokesman David Mencer told journalists on Wednesday that “UNRWA is riddled with Hamas operatives,” adding that “if a state funds UNRWA, that state is funding terrorists.”
“UNRWA employs over 1,200 Hamas members, including terrorists who carried out the October 7 massacre,” Mencer said. “This isn’t aid, it’s direct financial support for terror.”
In response, UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday demanded that Israel rescind its order.
“I regret this decision and request that the government of Israel retract it,” he said, stressing that UNRWA was “irreplaceable.”
The agency’s chief, Philippe Lazzarini, said UNRWA’s capacity to distribute aid “far exceeds that of any other entity.”
He called Israel’s actions against UNRWA a “relentless assault… harming the lives and future of Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territory.”
Israel has provided evidence that a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in the deadly 2023 attack and insists that other agencies can pick up the slack to provide essential services, aid and reconstruction — something the UN and many donor governments dispute.
A series of investigations, including one led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA, but claimed Israel had not provided evidence for its headline allegation.
Under US President Donald Trump, who returned to the White House earlier this month, Washington has thrown its weight behind Israel’s move, accusing UNRWA of overstating the impact of the decision.