GAZA, (PIC)
United Nations and human rights institutions have warned of dangerous repercussions of implementing the Israeli decision banning the operations of the United Nations Work and Relief Agency (UNRWA).
Such a decision, UN officials said, would negatively affect millions of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
“As time passes by, imposing a dangerous resolution concerning the agency becomes closer,” Juliette Touma, communications director for the UN’s agency for Palestine refugees, warned in press statements last Saturday, affirming that the ban will go in effect soon.
Touma asserted that once the ban comes in effect, the agency will not be able to provide essential services for millions of Palestinian refugees in Gaza Strip, West Bank, and in East Jerusalem.
The UN official pointed out that there is no way to replace UNRWA at the moment, stressing that the Israeli Knesset must reconsider its decision to suspend the agency’s operations.
Meanwhile, Ali Hweidi, the general director of Association 302 to Defend Refugees Rights said that the ban is set to come into effect on the 28th of January 2025.
“So far, there is no executive resolution to suspend the agency’s operations in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, or other districts,” Hweidi told our correspondent.
He also pointed out that the agency is still fulfilling its roles, adding that there is no sufficient information about how the occupation state will deal with alternatives of the UNRWA.
“The agency will not be able to resume its work in the regions under the Israeli control as all its offices and bank accounts inside Israel will be closed,” Hweidi underlined, pointing out that the occupation has been deliberately targeting the agency which provides basic services for about 5.9 million Palestinians.
“The Israeli ban on the agency under the current harsh circumstances will definitely result in dangerous human consequences,” Hweidi affirmed, stressing that the ban will aggravate the suffering of the refugees especially in the Gaza Strip, who are fully dependent on utterly inadequate amounts of aid allowed across the border.
Hweidi also warned that the decision to close UNRWA aims at closing the file of Palestinian refugees in general and abolish the right of return.
He called on the international community and human rights institutions to stop the ongoing violations against the Palestinian refugees, affirming the importance of popular movements and media and diplomatic pressure on decision makers in the UN in order to support the rights of Palestinian refugees and provide protection to the agency.
In this context, New York Times newspaper reported that UN officials warned of the catastrophic repercussions of the ban on the agency in Gaza and the West Bank, which would lead to a complete suspension of the agency’s operations in these regions.
A UN official stated that aid workers’ movement within Gaza must be coordinated with Israel, warning that the employees’ lives will be endangered and the relief operations will be difficult if the ban is fully enforced.
For his part, the Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator, Jaime McGoldrick, responsible for overseeing UN humanitarian operations in the West Bank, said in a press statement that if the Israeli aim is to stop us from saving lives, the motives and ultimate goal of this ban must be questioned.
McGoldrick highlighted that the agency’s operations in Gaza and the West Bank constitute the artery of the lives of millions of Palestinian refugees who completely depend on the basic UNRWA services.
Furthermore, international newspapers and websites discussed the consequences of the ban on the agency, warning of catastrophic consequences resulting from the decision, especially in view of the dire conditions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
In a report published by the Wall Street Journal newspaper, it was highlighted that in a month, the agency might not be able to provide the basic services in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip due to the new Israeli decision aiming at suspending the agency’s work.
The report stressed that this ban further intensifies the economic problem in the West Bank, which will result in more political instability. While in the Gaza Strip, suspending the agency’s operations threatens that human aid networks might be dismantled, which in turn complicates the already dire conditions in the region due to the ongoing conflict.
This decision comes in light of the ongoing Israeli aggression, which exacerbates the Palestinian refugees’ plight, which is the hardest they have witnessed since the Nakba in 1948.
Concerns that basic services provided by the agency would collapse have been growing. More decline of the human conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) will follow.
On the 28th of October 2024, the Israeli Knesset passed two bills banning UNRWA from operating in OPT, claiming that the agency cooperates with Hamas Movement in the Gaza Strip.
UNRWA was established by the UN General Assembly after the Palestinian Nakba in 1948.
The agency started its humanitarian operations on the 1st of May 1950 with the aim of supporting Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
