Israel on Tuesday asserted its position that UNRWA was deeply infiltrated by the Hamas terror group after the Knesset’s approval of bills curtailing the UN agency for Palestinian refugees sparked concern in the international community that the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip would be severely aggravated.
The Foreign Ministry said it was committed to international law and providing aid to the coastal enclave, adding that it was continuing its work with other United Nations and international agencies, such as the World Food Program, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and other groups, to ensure that aid reaches those in need.
The ministry reiterated Israel’s position that Hamas “has infiltrated UNRWA in Gaza widely and deeply.”
“UNRWA employees were involved in the horrific 7 October massacre,” the ministry said. “Moreover, Israel handed over to the UN details about an additional 100 Hamas operatives who are employed by UNRWA, yet UNRWA has not taken any measures to handle the issue, and is not moving forward with any serious steps to deal with the terrorist operatives in its ranks.”
It said UNRWA has also not issued complaints or public statements about Hamas’s use of its facilities in Gaza.
“It is not just a few rotten apples, as UN Secretary-General [Antonio] Guterres is trying to claim. UNRWA in Gaza is a rotten tree entirely infected with terrorist operatives,” the ministry said, calling on those who care about Israel and Gaza to replace UNRWA with other agencies.
The two bills overwhelmingly passed through final votes Monday ban UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory and bar Israeli authorities from any contact with the agency. The legislation will shutter UNRWA’s operations in East Jerusalem where it provides education, health, and civil services to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. It will also severely curtail UNRWA activities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank where the agency relies on coordination with Israel to provide humanitarian aid and other services.
Israel has long had a combative relationship with UNRWA, which it argues has perpetuated the Palestinian refugee crisis by allowing the status to be passed down through generations. Frustration with UNRWA in Jerusalem has picked up over the past decade as Israel has found the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group embedded within the agency’s infrastructure.
That anger has peaked since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, in which a number of UNRWA staffers were found to have participated. Israel has gone on to claim that 10 percent of the UN agency’s staff have ties to Hamas — a charge the agency has denied.
It was against this backdrop that the two bills managed to swiftly make their way through the Knesset, with sponsorship from both coalition and opposition lawmakers.
An Israeli official told The Times of Israel that UNRWA “was already limited and reduced” in Gaza in recent months. The agency is not the leading agency providing aid in Gaza anymore, the official continued, as Israel has been systematically “minimizing its activities” in the Strip.
“The Knesset vote strengthens processes that are already happening,” the official said, pointing at UNICEF taking the lead on polio vaccinations, and the UN World Food Programme taking the lead on food distribution.
“It’s hard to know where Hamas ends and UNRWA begins,” the official added.
The official argued that Guterres is uninterested in investigating UNRWA employees’ involvement in the October 7 attacks, because he would have to admit that the organization violated its neutrality in the most blatant way.
Guterres, continued the official, also has an interest in using overblown claims about a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza to push for an end to the war.
When Israel presents officials from allied countries with evidence of dozens of UNRWA employees working for Hamas and involved in attacks against Israel, the official said, “They don’t disagree, they just say now is not the right time” to take action against the agency.
Countering Israel’s claims that UNRWA’s role can be covered, the head of the International Organization for Migration said that while the agency is keen to step up its support to people in crisis following the passage of the legislation, there is “no way” it can replace the UN agency’s work in Gaza.
“UNRWA is absolutely essential to the people of Gaza, and I don’t want to leave anyone with the misimpression that IOM can play that role, because we cannot, but we can provide support to those people who are currently in crisis,” International Organization for Migration Director-General Amy Pope told reporters.
“That is a role that we are very, very keen to play, and one that we will be stepping up with the support of various stakeholders.”
Additionally, UNICEF, which provides aid to children worldwide, said Israel’s decision to ban UNRWA 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,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who has worked extensively in Gaza since the beginning of the war against the Hamas terror group following its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, said. “So a decision such as this suddenly means that a new way has been found to kill children.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also said that the UK “is gravely concerned” over the new laws.
“This legislation risks making UNRWA’s essential work for Palestinians impossible, jeopardizing the entire international humanitarian response in Gaza and delivery of essential health and education services in the West Bank,” he said in a statement.
Starmer added that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “simply unacceptable.”
“We need to see an immediate ceasefire, the release of the hostages and a significant increase in aid to Gaza,” he stated, without mentioning Hamas or the fate of the terror organization and its members.
“Only UNRWA can deliver humanitarian aid at the scale and pace needed,” Starmer continued. “We pay tribute to the 222 UNRWA staff who have lost their lives in the conflict.”
Jordan said the Knesset’s decision was a violation of international law and part of its bid to dismantle the organization.
In a statement, the kingdom’s foreign ministry said Monday’s vote was “part of the systematic targeting” of UNRWA and a “continuation of Israel’s frantic efforts to assassinate the UN agency politically, in addition to its aggressive war on the Palestinian people.”
Turkey’s foreign ministry said Israel’s decision is a clear violation of international law that aims to prevent displaced Palestinians from returning home.
In a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the move aims to disrupt efforts to reach a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adding that UNRWA provides vital help to Palestinians. Israel argues that UNRWA is an obstacle to peace, perpetuating the Palestinian refugee status and dependence on aid.
“It is the legal and moral obligation of the international community to take a strong stance against attempts to ban UNRWA, which was established by a UN General Assembly resolution,” the ministry said.