Israel told the United Nations on Friday that the relief agency known as UNRWA, a critical lifeline for 2 million Palestinians during the 15-month war in Gaza, has ordered 6 to 60 million people to stop all operations in East Jerusalem. He said it was for days.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said: “UNRWA has ceased operations in Jerusalem and will close all facilities operating in the city by January 30th. We need to evacuate in 2025.”
The letter was Israel’s official notification to Israel about how it plans to enforce the law passed by Israel’s parliament in October. . The measure also prohibits Israeli officials from interacting with UNRWA officials or employees.
The move came after months of tension between the Israeli government and the United Nations agency. It provides food, shelter, health care, job training, and education to Israeli Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, especially in the Hamas-led Aftermath. On October 7, 2023, the attack on Israel that sparked the war. The agency also assists Palestinians living in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
Israel accuses UNRWA of infiltrating Hamas members. But two U.N. investigations found fewer than 10 employees out of nearly 13,000 were affiliated with armed Palestinian groups and were fired.
In Gaza, 269 UNRWA staff were killed. Officials say this is the largest loss of life among UN employees in the conflict.
Danon said in the letter that Israel continues to cooperate with the United Nations, “one of which is not infiltrated by terrorist organizations.”
Asked for comment, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said Unrwa’s work was irreplaceable and essential, especially in Gaza, where Israeli shelling to eradicate Hamas has displaced and killed large swathes of the population. He referred to an earlier statement by Mr. Guterres that he fiercely defended. According to Gazan officials, 47,000 people do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
A UNRWA spokesperson also referred a request for comment to Mr. Guterres’ office, as the letter was addressed to him.
“Firstly, the United Nations bodies, including the backbone of our humanitarian response, must be able to carry out their functions without obstacles,” Guterres told a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in Gaza earlier this week. Ta.
Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini asked the council last week to intervene to stop Israel from enforcing a law condemning his agency. He said such actions would “significantly weaken the international humanitarian response” in Gaza and “immeasurably worsen the already devastating living conditions.”
Before the letter was sent, Lazzarini told reporters last Friday that his agency had not received clear instructions from Israel on how the measures would be implemented. He also said there were huge logistical challenges in the West Bank and Gaza, and he expected UNRWA to continue its work, although its work in Jerusalem would be compromised.
In this letter, Israel requested that UNRWA evacuate two sites in East Jerusalem’s Maalot Dafna and Kfar Aqueb districts. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be part of Israel.
UNRWA was established in 1949 to assist Palestinians who fled or were forced to flee during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
The agency enjoys widespread support among United Nations member states, who urge Israel not to ban the agency’s work. The Biden administration suspended millions in annual funding to UNRWA after Israel accused Hamas of infiltrating the agency, and in March Congress barred U.S. funding to the organization for a year.
Donald J. Trump defunded UNRWA in 2018 during his first presidential term and is expected to continue restricting funding.
Representative Elise Stefanik, Trump’s choice to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, criticized the relief agency as “anti-Semitic” in a Senate hearing this week, calling Israel’s “biblical rights” to the West Bank He said he supported it.
That position is at odds with the United Nations’ stance that the West Bank occupies Palestinian territory.
Lazzarini said in a Friday post on X that UNRWA would be prevented from “disrupting” the interim ceasefire that recently clashed between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
He said that in the first three days of the ceasefire, UNRWA brought food to one million people in Gaza and had already distributed it to about 3,000 people in northern Gaza. of famine.
“UNRWA’s work must continue in Gaza+ across the occupied Palestinian territories,” Lazzarini said.
