Israel’s parliament voted on Monday to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) for Palestinian refugees, a decision that could further hamper vital aid deliveries to Gaza as Israel continues its brutal offensive there.
For more than 70 years, UNRWA has provided aid and services — schools, clinics, food and cash aid and shelter — to the Palestinian population in Gaza. West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. It continued its operations in increasingly challenging conditions throughout the war, organizing the distribution of humanitarian aid despite Israeli obstacles and funding shortages. Palestinians seeking medical care and facing crisis levels of hunger and disease have become increasingly dependent on UNWRA aid amid Israeli bombardment, which has left Gaza in ruins.
It’s hard to imagine the humanitarian crisis in Gaza getting worse, but with the UNRWA sanctions it could happen. UNRWA itself has fed more than that 215,000 families It has also coordinated more inflows since the start of the war in Gaza 18,500 aid trucks In Gaza, including those run by other non-profit groups.
The ban would close UNRWA’s office in East Jerusalem, end legal immunity for the agency’s staff in the Israeli justice system, and criminalize coordination between the Israeli military and the agency. The new regulations are the result of two new laws, both passed by large majorities. Set to take effect within the next three months, the ban is part of an effort by Israeli officials to dismantle Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Israel accuses 19 UNRWA workers of involvement in attacks; A United Nations investigation came to this conclusion 10 people may be involved and dismissed those individuals, but found no evidence to support other cases. UNRWA was in the wake of those allegations Defunded by the US and other major donor countries. US funding has not resumedDespite the firing, and Israel Hamas is deeply involved in the agency’s Gaza operation.
This leaves Palestinians dependent on UNRWA in an even more vulnerable situation.
“UNRWA is a lifeline for Palestinians,” said Christopher Lockyear, secretary-general of the aid group Doctors Without Borders. “If implemented, sanctions on UNRWA’s activities will have a catastrophic impact on the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, as well as the Palestinians living in the West Bank, now and for generations to come.”
What Israel’s decision to ban UNRWA means for Gaza
Gaza is already experiencing a humanitarian disaster. Palestinian death toll Now exceeds 40,000Although there are probably many more unreported.
The Israeli attack was repulsed More than 2 million peopleMany of them multiple times. Most are living in tented shelters as housing has been destroyed at a rate not seen anywhere in the world since World War II. According to the United Nations.
A report from September The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the primary organization tracking global food security, found that the entire Gaza Strip faces an emergency level of food insecurity. More than 133,000 are facing famine. Malnutrition made the population more vulnerable to disease, incl Waterborne diseases like polio. If the war continues and humanitarian aid continues to be restricted, the I.P.C Greater Risk of Famine Project Going into the winter months.
Few humanitarian aid shipments have arrived in Gaza in recent months: according to the UN’s World Food Program (WFP), September marked the lowest supply volume since March, when half the population was at serious and imminent risk of famine. It’s not because help isn’t available. There is enough food to feed WFP 1 million people ready to go for four months in Gaza, but the agency said Israel would need to open more border crossings to make those supplies. recent Order to evacuate Israelis This has made it more difficult for aid workers to work inside Gaza.
The lack of available border crossings and the recent UNWRA ban all appear to be in violation of an International Court of Justice ruling in January demanding that Israel take steps to facilitate the delivery of aid to Gaza.
According to Doctors Without Borders, UNRWA currently serves as the largest health provider in Gaza. Over 15,000 suggestions Every day across the Strip, and its absence will lead to more preventable deaths. NGOs also rely on UNRWA to coordinate aid distribution and inform the Israeli military of humanitarian worker movements. For example, Doctors Without Borders anticipates that it will be difficult to coordinate these movements with the Israeli authorities, and that this decision is more likely to result in a denial of entry into Gaza. This could put aid workers in more danger and get less aid to Gaza.
International Rescue Committee said in a statement Other NGOs cannot fulfill the important role that UNRWA has played in Gaza, with its well-established infrastructure and community trust: “The bill passed by the Israeli parliament is an unprecedented attack on a UN agency and, if implemented, will only worsen the humanitarian crisis.
Will the United States stop the weapons?
Israel’s decision to ban UNRWA is likely to provoke reactions from the US, Israel Primary security partnerwhich provided Has given Israel more than $17 billion in military aid over the past yearAccording to Brown University’s Costs of War project.
The US State Department and Defense Department had already warned Israel earlier this month that some US aid could be cut if the humanitarian situation in Gaza did not improve significantly within 30 days.
time a Monday’s press briefingState Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the department was “concerned” about legislation banning UNRWA and warned that “the passage of this legislation could have implications under US law and US policy.”
Laws in question may include the Leahy Act, which blocks military aid to certain units suspected of gross human rights abuses, and other federal provisions that block military transfers to governments that block US humanitarian aid.
Over the past year, both Hamas and the Israeli military have been repeatedly accused of war crimes United Nations and other human rights experts. The scale of Israel’s alleged crimes is equivalent to genocide against the Palestinian people, South Africa and At least 12 other countriesAs well as a number of experts. The International Court of Justice has also determined that Israel is not doing enough to prevent it from judging the Gaza war.
These accusations were not enough to change the US position on aid to Israel. The Biden administration imposed a “red line“in a major military operation in Rafah, southern Gaza, but insisted that Israel’s military action there did not meet that criteria.
It’s unclear whether the UNRWA ban on Israel will change the US position, but Jesse Marks, senior Middle East advocate at Refugees International, said there’s no reason to believe it will.
“The White House can draw red lines, and the Israelis can blow those red lines with impunity,” he said. “There is serious skepticism about the likelihood that the Biden administration will push back against the Israelis in any meaningful way if actions around UNRWA go forward.”
