Unrwa decries 'disinformation campaign' as Israeli ban sets in

While Israel may not have succeeded in eliminating Hamas from the Gaza Strip, it is actively advancing its plan to dismantle another openly declared enemy: the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). This has been revealed to Middle East Eye by UN officials and humanitarian workers.

On Thursday, two laws came into effect that effectively restrict UNRWA's ability to operate in the war-torn enclave. One prohibits the agency from operating within "areas of Israeli sovereignty," while the other bans any engagement with the agency. COGAT, the Israeli military unit responsible for coordinating aid deliveries to Gaza, stated that it would abide by the law.

Israel has been publicly critical of the UN agency for years. Israel first attempted to ban the agency's activities two decades ago when UNRWA constructed a compound in Jerusalem. Palestinians maintain that Israel views UNRWA as a threat to its existence because the organization recognizes Palestinian refugees and expresses support for the right of return for their descendants.

Israel has accelerated its actions against UNRWA in the wake of the October 7th events. The organization, which provides aid, medical care, and education to millions of people in the Palestinian territories and neighboring Arab countries, has suffered numerous blows. Israel’s war on Gaza erupted following a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7th. In response, Israel launched a massive assault on the enclave, resulting in the deaths of over 47,487 people, the majority of whom were women and children.

During the 15-month war on Gaza, Israel has launched bloody attacks on UNRWA facilities. The agency says that at least 272 UNRWA staff have been killed in attacks, and 205 UNRWA sites have been damaged. Israel maintains that Hamas has used UNRWA facilities as bases. During the war, the vast majority of UNRWA facilities, such as schools and clinics, were converted into shelters for hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians. Israeli attacks there have been particularly bloody. For example, an Israeli strike in June killed at least 40 people at an UNRWA school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Despite Israeli claims that Hamas was inside the facility, people sheltering there refuted this, saying there were no armed men in the school. “They say they target militants. What militants? We don’t have any weapons, we came here for safety with our tents and the clothes on our backs,” a survivor of the attack told Middle East Eye. The physical destruction of UNRWA facilities has occurred against a backdrop of what UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma called “an exceptionally hostile environment,” with “intense disinformation campaigns” leveled against the agency.

Last year, Israel claimed that UNRWA staff participated in the October 7th attacks. UNRWA launched an investigation and fired nine staff members who were allegedly “possibly involved in the attacks.” UNRWA is the largest aid organization in the Gaza Strip, with around 13,000 staff and over 300 facilities. This week, the agency faced more pressure after the mother of a recently released Israeli female captive wrote on X that her daughter told UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer that she was held in an UNRWA facility. UNRWA responded to the allegation in a social media post on Sunday.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said that UNRWA was forced to evacuate all of its facilities in northern Gaza and has “no control” over them. Its staff also had to evacuate UNRWA facilities when Israel issued mandatory displacement orders. He called the allegation “deeply disturbing and shocking.” Israel itself has converted schools previously run by UNRWA into military bases for its soldiers, highlighting UNRWA's lack of control over its facilities during the Israeli offensive.

A senior Western humanitarian worker who has worked in Gaza told Middle East Eye that Hamas has an interest in ensuring hostages do not know where they are being held, but the group may have tried to protect them by keeping them in UN facilities. Dozens of Palestinian prisoners were released in exchange for a single hostage as part of a ceasefire deal that went into effect in January. A UN official told Middle East Eye that the allegation will only put more pressure on UNRWA, which is struggling to maintain its presence in the Gaza Strip at this time.

The United States has cut aid to UNRWA in 2024. Arab foreign ministers from key US partners Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are scrambling to support UNRWA. They said at a meeting in Cairo on Saturday that the agency plays a “vital, indispensable and irreplaceable role,” adding that they “categorically reject any attempt to circumvent or limit its role.” UNRWA, for its part, has warned that Israel’s latest laws could undermine the ceasefire in Gaza and complicate the delivery of aid that should be pouring into the enclave at this time.

Lazzarini noted on X that in the first three days of the Gaza ceasefire, UNRWA brought in enough food to feed one million people and its staff distributed rations to 300,000 people. “Preventing UNRWA from operating may undermine the Gaza ceasefire,” he warned, “and once again fail the hopes of people who have endured unspeakable suffering.”