Israel shuts down UN Palestinian refugee agency as 60 dead in Lebanon attacks

Israel’s parliament on Monday banned the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) from operating in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem, despite objections from the international community and Lebanon said 60 people were killed in latest Israeli attacks in east of the country.

Lawmakers passed the bill with 92 votes in favour and 10 against, after years of harsh Israeli criticism of UNRWA, which has only increased since the start of the war in Gaza following Hamas’s deadly October 7 attacks last year.

The ban on the UN agency — which has provided essential aid and assistance across Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees elsewhere for more than seven decades — would be a blow to humanitarian work in Gaza if implemented, according to experts.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini condemned the decision, saying it set “a dangerous precedent”.

“This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA… These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians,” he wrote on X.

The move also brought condemnation and criticism from the governments of the United States, Britain and Germany, among others.

Ahead of the vote, the United States said it was “deeply concerned” about the bill, reiterating the “critical” role the agency plays in distributing humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.

Washington warned Israel on October 15 that it had 30 days to increase the amount of aid reaching the Gaza Strip or it would consider withholding some military assistance to its key ally.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain was “gravely concerned” as the legislation would make “UNRWA’s essential work for Palestinians impossible, jeopardising the entire international humanitarian response in Gaza and delivery of essential health and education services in the West Bank”.

– No operations in Israel –

The ban, which enters into force in 90 days, would effectively prevent UNRWA from operating in Israel and also target its operations in east Jerusalem, where it currently provides some essential services such as cleaning, education and healthcare in certain neighbourhoods.

It is also feared that UNRWA employees in the West Bank could potentially face problems moving from one place to another as well as accessing east Jerusalem or Israel because they would lose their ability to coordinate with the Israeli authorities to cross checkpoints.

The same fears apply to visas and permits delivered by Israeli authorities.

UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies have accused Israeli authorities of restricting aid flows into Gaza, where almost all of the territory’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during the war.

The agency itself has suffered heavy losses, with at least 223 of its staff killed and two-thirds of the agency’s facilities in Gaza damaged or destroyed since the war began.

The war in Gaza erupted with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Read more: Israel wants more peace deals with Arab countries after war: Netanyahu

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 43,020 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, figures that the UN considers reliable.

UNRWA was created in 1949 to support Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.

A lifeline for Palestinians

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, whose operations in Israel were banned by the Israeli parliament on Monday, is seen by some as an “irreplaceable” humanitarian lifeline in Gaza, but as an accomplice of Hamas by others.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has for more than seven decades provided essential aid and assistance to Palestinian refugees.

The agency has also long been a lightening rod for harsh Israeli criticism, which has ramped up dramatically since the start of the war in Gaza, following Hamas’s deadly October 7 attacks last year.

UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, has seen more than 220 of its staff killed in the war there — even as it has faced dramatic funding cuts and calls for its dismantlement amid Israeli accusations that some of its workers took part in the October 7 attack.

– Created in wake of war –

UNRWA was established in December 1949 by the UN General Assembly in the wake of the first Arab-Israeli conflict following Israel’s creation in May 1948.

The agency, which began its operations on May 1, 1950, was tasked with assisting some 750,000 Palestinians who had been expelled during the war.

It was supposed to be a short-term fix, but in the absence of a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem, the General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA’s mandate, most recently extending it until June 30, 2026.

– Millions of refugees –

The number of Palestinian refugees under its charge has meanwhile ballooned to nearly six million across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Palestinian refugees are defined as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict”.

Their descendents also have refugee status.

– UNRWA in Gaza –

In the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas since 2007, the humanitarian situation was already critical before the war between Israel and Hamas began last October, with more than 80 percent of the population living below the poverty line.

The territory, squeezed between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, counts eight camps and around 1.7 million refugees, the overwhelming majority of the population of 2.4 million, according to the UN.

The situation has spiralled into catastrophe following Hamas’s deadly attack inside Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 43,000 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.

Two-thirds of buildings have been damaged and nearly the entire population of Gaza has been displaced, many of them multiple times, the UN says.

“In the midst of all the upheaval, UNRWA, more than ever, is indispensable. UNRWA, more than ever, is irreplaceable,” UN chief Antonio Guterres has said.

UNRWA, which employs some 13,000 people in Gaza, has seen two-thirds of its facilities there damaged or destroyed.