Israel has officially notified the United Nations of its decision to cut ties with its agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

In a statement on Monday, November 4, 2024, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it cancelled a cooperation agreement from 1967 which provided the legal basis of the country’s relations with UNRWA.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz was quoted as saying, “UNRWA – the organisation whose employees participated in the October 7 massacre and many of whose employees are Hamas operatives – is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution.”

Last week, the Israeli parliament adopted two controversial bills banning UNRWA from operating on Israeli territory, closing its premises in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza.

Israel alleges fighters of Palestinian group Hamas have infiltrated UNRWA. The UN agency denies the allegations and says it takes measures to ensure its neutrality.

In January, Israel claimed that more than a dozen UNRWA members took part in a Hamas-led attack on Israel last year, in which Palestinian fighters killed more than 1,100 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 captives.

The UN launched an investigation into Israel’s allegations which resulted in the termination of contracts of nine staff members against which “the evidence – if authenticated and corroborated – could indicate that the UNRWA staff members may have been involved” in the attack.

In July, Israel claimed that another 100 UNRWA employees were members of Hamas and other Palestinian groups. The agency asked Israel to provide more information to take action.

Meanwhile, UN officials say Israeli forces have killed more than 130 of their workers in a year in Gaza – the largest such toll in any conflict since the global body was founded

Israel’s Ban To Lead To Humanitarian Work Collapse

UNRWA Spokesman, Jonathan Fowler, stated on Monday that Israel’s ban on its operations, if implemented, would lead to the “collapse” of humanitarian work in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

He noted that UNRWA is the backbone of international humanitarian operation in the Gaza Strip.

The UN agency provides education, healthcare and other basic services to Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation and their descendants, who now number nearly six million.

Refugee families make up the majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million population.

Aid groups have warned that Israel’s ban on UNRWA could create further obstacles to addressing a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Israel has said that other UN agencies and aid groups can fill the gap, but those organisations insist UNRWA is essential.

Israel’s notification to the UN came as the World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza “could soon escalate into famine” as Israeli forces continue to severely restrict the entry of food and other supplies into the enclave.

According to Tamer Qarmout, Assistant Professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Israel’s decision to ban UNRWA is part of the government’s plan to end the Palestinian cause.

He told a news agency that t is a devastating attack on the “very existence of the Palestinian people.”

“UNRWA is providing services similar to a state in the absence of a Palestinian state.

“You shut down UNRWA’s operations so that Palestinians will have no services whatsoever and survival becomes so difficult. It’s as if you’re telling them: leave this place, you have no future here.”
Tamer Qarmout

Qarmout added that he believed the US to be the only actor that can stop this decision from being implemented on the ground.