The Israeli ban on the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) on Thursday came into effect despite criticism and backlash, impacting the work of the organization in Gaza and the West Bank.
In October of 2024, the Israeli Parliament passed two laws mandating the cessation of UNRWA operations in Gaza and the West Bank, prohibiting Israeli authorities from having any contact with the agency and demanding that they cease their activity by January 30, 2025. The decision was the culmination of controversy following the admission by the UN that several UNRWA staff members were involved in the October 7th attacks.
Reacting to the ban coming into effect, UNRWA Communications Director Juliette Touma stated that its headquarters in east Jerusalem will continue to operate despite the ambiguity surrounding the ban. UNRWA added that they had not received any official communication on how the ban will be implemented.
Last year, when the ban was initially proposed, the European Union expressed concern over the bill’s consequences, which would “destroy UNRWA’s life-saving operations in Gaza, and seriously hamper the provision of health, education, and social services in the West Bank.”
Amnesty International criticized the law as “an outright attack on the rights of Palestinian refugees,” stating that it amounts to the criminalization of humanitarian aid, worsening the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.
UNRWA was established in 1949 by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to provide relief and humanitarian assistance to refugees of the 1948 Palestine War and Nakba. Today, the UNRWA is a subsidiary body of the UNGA subject to a renewable mandate once in three years.
