Israel's New Laws Blocks UNRWA Aid To Gaza And West Bank—Here's What It Means

Israel's parliament Knesset has passed two laws that shall prevent the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), a principal humanitarian aid provider for Gaza, from being able to continue its work.

The first law bans state authorities from having any contact with UNRWA. The second effectively prevents the organization from operating in Israeli territory thereby halting all UNRWA’s activities and services on Israeli soil. 

In practical terms, the decision is expected to severely constrain UNRWA’s activities as without coordination with Israel, it will be almost impossible, in turn, for UNRWA to work in Gaza or the West Bank, since Jerusalem would no longer be issuing entrance permits to those territories or allowing coordination with the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). 

Additionally, Israel controls access to Gaza from Egypt, with the IDF deployed along the Gaza-Egypt Philadelphi corridor.

UNRWA — for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — provides education, health care, and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

Israel alleges that more than 10 percent of UNRWA’s staff in Gaza have ties to terror and that educational facilities under the organization’s auspices consistently incite hatred of Israel and glorify terror. 

In February, the IDF revealed the existence of a subterranean Hamas data center directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza Strip headquarters. The IDF has also repeatedly targeted Hamas command centers and gunmen hiding out in UNRWA schools.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that the bills would be a “catastrophe,” while European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell recently warned that it “would have disastrous consequences.”

Such a move would prevent UNRWA “from continuing to provide its services and protection to Palestine refugees in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza,” Borrell stated.

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