Palestinian fear and Israeli celebrations as Unrwa ban begins

Israel's ban on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) went into effect on Thursday, raising serious concerns among Palestinians about their basic humanitarian needs and the provision of services. The implementation of this ban will significantly impact aid efforts in the Palestinian territories.

The Israeli parliament passed two laws targeting UNRWA: one prohibiting the agency from operating within "areas under Israeli sovereignty," and another banning any contact with the agency. Despite international recognition of East Jerusalem as Palestinian territory, Israeli law extends the ban to include occupied East Jerusalem. Israel annexed the area in 1967, a move widely condemned by the international community.

Israel's Permanent Representative to the UN, Danny Danon, informed the UN Security Council on Tuesday that Israel would terminate its cooperation with the agency. Danon posted on X (formerly Twitter), stating, "UNRWA must cease its activities in Israel and evacuate all its facilities in Jerusalem." However, UNRWA's communications director stated that the agency has not received any official notification regarding how the Israeli parliamentary ban would be implemented.

UNRWA's communications director, Juliette Touma, said in an interview with ABC News on Thursday, "Our plan for now is to carry out our mandate, which is to provide services and humanitarian assistance to people in the occupied Palestinian territories." She also told The Guardian that the agency's headquarters in East Jerusalem remains and must be protected as it is a UN facility. Touma added, "We have no plans to close our operations, and our efforts in the West Bank and Gaza continue."

UNRWA stated on its official social media accounts that the agency "continues to provide aid and services to the communities we serve. Our clinics are open in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and humanitarian operations in Gaza continue." However, staff left UNRWA's compound in the area for security reasons after celebrations by far-right Israeli groups. The UN compound has since been vandalized with graffiti and Israeli flags.

The Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported that the event was organized by Jerusalem's right-wing deputy mayor, Arieh King. UNRWA provides services to over 110,000 refugees in Jerusalem, with its most prominent work being in the Shuafat and Qalandiya refugee camps. Earlier this week, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini stated that implementing a ban on the agency's operations within Israel would severely undermine its ability to work in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire is currently in place.

Lazzarini told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the ban would "exacerbate instability and deepen despair in the occupied Palestinian territory at a critical time." He said, "The relentless attacks on UNRWA are harming the lives and futures of Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory. This is eroding their trust in the international community and jeopardizing any hope for peace and security."

UNRWA provides aid, medical, and educational services to millions of Palestinians in the Palestinian territories, as well as millions of Palestinians living in refugee camps in neighboring countries like Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. The agency has also operated schools and medical clinics in occupied East Jerusalem for decades, an area that Israel seized from Jordan in the 1967 war. US President Donald Trump supported Israel's decision to close UNRWA offices.

US Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Dorothy Shea, stated at the Security Council on Tuesday, "Israel’s closure of UNRWA’s offices in Jerusalem on January 30 is a sovereign decision. The United States supports the implementation of this decision." Shea also stated that "UNRWA has exaggerated the impact of these laws and implied that they would force an entire humanitarian operation to cease, which is irresponsible and dangerous." Trump's support for Israel's attacks on UNRWA is not new. During the former Trump administration, Washington cut funding to the UN agency, calling it a "flawed operation."