Crucial lifeline

Twenty-five international staff employed by UNRWA, the UN agency caring for Palestinian refugees, left East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza last week after Israel imposed a ban on the 75-year-old organisation. Nevertheless, the agency’s Palestinian staff continued to work. UNRWA posted on X: Since the Jan.19 ceasefire “UNRWA has reached an estimated 750,000 people with food, distributed more than 225,000 food parcels, provided 43,000 cubic metres of water, [and] delivered 370 pallets of medical supplies to health centres.”

The ban took effect on Jan.30, following the rejection of an appeal by Israel’s supreme court. Two laws adopted last October barred UNRWA operations only in illegally Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem but prohibited cooperation between Israeli officials and UNRWA elsewhere. The legislation cancelled Israel’s 1967 agreement allowing UNRWA to continue operations in the Palestinian territories seized from Jordan. As it controls access, Israel can deny clearance for food, medicine, fuel, and essential supplies for UNRWA and UN agencies and international charities which collaborate with UNRWA.

Israel justifies its UNRWA ban by alleging that agency staff took part in the attack on southern Israel in October 2023 by Hamas which killed 1,200 and abducted 251, according to Israel. It initially named a dozen who were suspended and nine dismissed by UNRWA after an investigation. Later Israel increased the number of accused without producing evidence against them. An independent inquiry disproved the charge that UNRWA has been infiltrated by Hamas.

Israel’s ban has been condemned by from Britain, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Slovenia and Spain while, as expected, the US Trump administration supports the move. Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Slovenia and Spain argued that Israel’s decision amounted to rejection of the 1949 UN General Assembly resolution which created the agency and is “in direct breach of Israel’s obligations under international law.” Belgium’s foreign ministry said the Israeli move “sets a disastrous precedent that deeply undermines the multilateral system and the United Nations itself.”

UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma told “Gulf Today” that if Israel implements this law, “it’s going to be catastrophic for the Palestinian people that we serve and depend on the agency for their survival.” Having had no communication from Israel and uninformed on how the ban will be implemented, she said, “We will continue to deliver and serve until we can’t.”

She stated, “We serve free of charge, We are meant to serve the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable in the community. Inside and outside [the camps] we provide registered [refugees] with education and health care. In Gaza UNRWA supplies anyone, whether registered or not registered.”

UNRWA provides for 912,879 registered refugees in the West Bank and 1.6 million in Gaza. The agency has 96 schools and 45,000 students in the West Bank and 183 schools and 291,000 students in Gaza. UNRWA operates 43 primary health centres in the West Bank where there are 895,000 annual patient visits and 22 health centres in Gaza where there are 3.4 million consultations a year. No combination of other agencies can assume UNRWA’s mission.

Touma stated, “Since the Gaza war began, we have massively expanded in terms of our operations. We serve two million people in the Gaza strip who receive food assistance daily.” Humanitarian supplies enter Gaza by multiple UN and international agencies, “but UNRWA has the lion’s share. If UNRWA is not allowed to work in Gaza, what would be the state of the fragile ceasefire? UNRWA has the best distribution system so other agencies depend on UNRWA. If UNRWA goes down, the whole aid structure goes down.” She pointed out that the ceasefire is “extremely fragile” and “a big chunk of the ceasefire agreement is bringing in unhindered and unlimited humanitarian aid which is currently run, administered and managed by UNRWA.” Since the flow of aid has increased dramatically since the ceasefire, looting of convoys by Palestinian gangs has “decreased massively” and in some places has stopped. “There is a natural correlation between the flow of aid and the decrease of looting.”

UNRWA and other agencies are providing tents. There is a massive need for shelter, as Israel has destroyed 69 per cent of buildings, including 245,000 homes in Gaza. UNRWA has “1,000 medical people who work with us in tents and shelters – nurses, doctors, paramedics, lab technicians, dentists and pharmacists.” UNRWA has taken into Gaza and stored food for a million people as well as fuel.

The number of UNRWA employees in Gaza has decreased from 13,000 to 5,000; 270 staff have been killed, some went to Egypt, and teachers are not working because schools are closed. Those who are working are in “emergency response, management of shelters, distribution of food and -health care,” Touma said. All 200 schools in Gaza have shut; 78-80 per cent are damaged. Nevertheless, schools are filled with thousands of displaced families.

After the war, commissions of inquiry will look into [Israel’s] violations against UNRWA, Touma observed. UNRWA was created in December 1949 by UN General Assembly resolution 302 and began operations in April 1950 to temporarily provide for the needs of 750,000 Palestinians rendered homeless and stateless during Israel’s war of establishment. Today, UNRWA serves 5.9 million of the original refugees and their descendants living in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

UNRWA’s mandate was tied to General Assembly resolution 194 of December 1948 which called for “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date.” Since Palestinians see this as their “right of return,” Israel is determined to dismember UNRWA which ii accuses of preserving Palestinian identity and nationalism and providing the basis for the Palestinian, Arab, and international call for a “two state solution.” This calls for the emergence of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel which rejects this possibility.

Photo: TNS