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UNRWA ban could kill more children in Gaza, UNICEF says

October 29, 2024 at 1:46 pm

Palestinians wait in line at a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) clinic in Deir al-Balah to receive medication and medical treatment as Israel’s attacks on Gaza continue, creating harsh living conditions for the residents, on October 29, 2024. [Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency]

Israel’s decision to ban the UN relief agency, UNRWA, could result in the deaths of more children and represent a form of collective punishment for Gazans if fully implemented, UN agencies said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

A law passed by Israel on Monday to ban the UN Palestinian refugee agency from operating inside Israel has raised concerns about its ability to provide relief in Gaza after over a year of war. The Agency, which employs thousands of people in Gaza, provides nearly the entire population of the coastal enclave with basic supplies and needs access through Israel.

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 the 7 October war began. “So a decision such as this suddenly means that a new way has been found to kill children.”

Palestinian health authorities’ data show that over 13,300 children whose identities have been confirmed have been killed in the Gaza war. Many more are believed to have died from diseases due to a collapsing medical system and food and water shortages.

Other UN agencies described UNRWA’s work as indispensable.

READ: Israel parliament approves law banning ‘terrorist group’ UNRWA

The World Health Organisation’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. UNRWA has about 1,000 health workers in Gaza, he added.

In response to a question about whether the ban represented a form of collective punishment against Gazans, UN humanitarian office spokesperson, Jens Laerke, said:

I think it is a fair description of what they have decided here, if implemented, that this would add to the acts of collective punishment that we have seen imposed on Gaza

Collective punishment, which amounts to a war crime, is a term referring to sanctions or harassment against a group taken in retaliation for acts by individual members of that group.

Israel says it makes all possible efforts to avoid civilian casualties and accuses Palestinian group, Hamas, of deliberately basing its fighters in residential areas and using civilians as human shields.

Explaining the ban, Israeli officials cited the involvement of UNRWA staffers in the 7 October, 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel which triggered the Gaza war. The UN said in August that nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in the attacks and fired them.

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.

The head of the International Organisation for Migration, Amy Pope, said IOM could not replace UNRWA in Gaza but that it could provide more relief to those in crisis.

READ: Medical teams needed in north Gaza hospital after Israeli raid, health ministry says