With UNRWA fate unclear, UN and Israel argue over who is responsible for Palestinians

The United Nations and Israel are arguing over who must fill the gap if UN Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, stops working in the Gaza Strip and West Bank later this month when an Israeli law comes into force, Reuters reports.

UNRWA still operates in the Palestinian Territories but it is unclear what awaits the nearly 75-year-old agency when the law banning its operation on Israeli land and contact with Israeli authorities takes effect.

The UN and Israel have been engaged in tit-for-tat letter writing since the law on UNRWA was passed in late October. Shortly after, the UN told Israel it was not the world body’s responsibility to replace UNRWA in the Palestinian Territory – Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

In a letter to the UN General Assembly and Security Council late on Thursday, Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, said if UNRWA was forced to stop operating then Israel “would be left to ensure that the range of services and assistance which UNRWA has been providing are provided” in accordance with its obligations under international law.

Guterres wrote that while other UN agencies were prepared to continue providing services and assistance to the Palestinians – to the extent they can – that “must not be viewed as releasing Israel from its obligations.”

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The United Nations views Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as Israeli-occupied territory. International law requires an occupying power to agree to and facilitate relief programs and ensure food, medical care, hygiene and public-health standards.

In a 18 December letter to the world body, Israel’s UN Ambassador, Danny Danon, said the new legislation “does not in any way undermine Israel’s steadfast commitment to international law.” He also rejected UN claims that Israel would be responsible for filling any gap left by UNRWA.

He wrote that Israel does not exercise effective control over Gaza and therefore is not an occupying power, adding that the law of military occupation also does not apply. He said that in the West Bank the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority for civilian affairs “must not be overlooked”.

“In Jerusalem, all residents are entitled to government and municipal services under Israeli law,” said Danon, adding that included health and education services. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognised abroad.

Health, Education at risk

Israel has long been critical of UNRWA. It says UNRWA staff took part in the 7 October, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. The UN has said nine UNRWA staff may have been involved and were fired. A Hamas commander in Lebanon – killed in September by Israel – was also found to have had an UNRWA job.

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 United States has said its ally, Israel, must ensure the new law does not further impede aid deliveries and critical services, including by UNRWA, in Gaza, which has been engulfed in a humanitarian crisis during the war between Israel and Palestinian fighters, Hamas.

But it has also questioned UN contingency planning.

State Department officials met this week with the transition team of incoming US President Donald Trump – who takes office on 20 January – and raised concerns about how the crisis in Gaza could deepen once the UNRWA law is implemented, said a US official.

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UNRWA, established by the UN General Assembly, provides aid, health and education services to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and neighbouring Arab countries – Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Guterres said UNRWA’s unique role could not be replaced. UN officials say it is the health, education and social services UNRWA provides in the Palestinian Territory that would suffer most as other agencies cannot match its ability to deliver such help.

Danon argued that “replacing UNRWA with relief schemes that will adequately provide essential assistance to Palestinian civilians is not at all impossible,” citing the aid operation in Gaza where he said other UN agencies were equipped to provide the necessary response “as they do elsewhere in the world.”

Other agencies working in Gaza and the West Bank include the children’s organisation, UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organisation, and the UN Development Programme. But top UN officials and the Security Council describe UNRWA as the backbone of the current humanitarian operation in Gaza.

Israel launched an assault on Hamas in Gaza after the fighters killed 1,200 people in southern Israel on 7 October, 2023, and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

More than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to Palestinian health officials. Much of the enclave has been laid waste and most of the 2.3 million people have been displaced multiple times. Food experts warn of a looming famine.

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