Israel's Bank Leumi suspends UNRWA’s bank account

Israel’s Bank Leumi has officially notified the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine refugees of the suspension of its bank account.

The decision comes as the bank claimed to have detected unusual activity triggering alerts within its compliance mechanisms and risk management systems. Bank Leumi communicated to UNRWA that a substantial number of money transfers in the account lacked traceable sources and final destinations.

According to Israel Hayom, it added that despite receiving explanations from UNRWA representatives, the responses provided were unsatisfactory and the bank is therefore concerned that funds from UNRWA’s account might be funnelling into terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.

This comes after Israel accused 12, of a total of 30,000, UNRWA employees in Gaza of being involved in the the 7 October infiltration by Palestinian resistance fighters into Israeli towns and villages on 7 October.

As a result, 18 countries and the EU bloc announced that they would suspend funding for the agency, which said, last week, that it was threatened with having to halt its activities “by the end of February”.

Speaking to the Financial Times on Saturday, UNRWA Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, said there was still no proof to back Israel’s claims.

Israel has repeatedly equated UNRWA staff with Hamas members in efforts to discredit them, providing no proof of the claims, while lobbying hard to have UNRWA closed as it is the only UN agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees.

If the agency no longer exists, argues Israel, then the refugee issue must no longer exist, and the legitimate right for Palestinian refugees to return to their land will be unnecessary. Israel has denied that right of return since the late 1940s, even though its own membership of the UN was made conditional upon Palestinian refugees being allowed to return to their homes and land.

Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip on 7 October, killing at least 26,750 Palestinians and injuring over 65,600.

The Israeli offensive has left 85 per cent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

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