Israel has formally cut ties with UNRWA. What this could mean for Gaza

Israel has formally ended a decades-old cooperation agreement with the United Nations Palestinian relief agency (UNRWA) that covered the protection, movement and diplomatic immunity of the agency in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Israel notified the U.N. in a letter on Sunday, as required by a new law adopted by Israel’s parliament that will ban UNRWA’s operations in Israel and prevent Israeli officials from cooperating with it when the law takes effect in late January.

The end of the 1967 agreement, however, is immediate. U.N. lawyers are studying the letter, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Monday, adding that: “UNRWA is continuing to operate today.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for years called for UNRWA to be dismantled, accusing it of anti-Israeli incitement.

UNRWA says the new law leaves its operations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza at risk of collapse. Top U.N. officials and the Security Council describe UNRWA as the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza, where Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas have been in conflict for the past year.

“There is no alternative to UNRWA,” Dujarric said.

The United States opposed the Israeli legislation on UNRWA and was studying the Israeli letter to the U.N. to learn what the implications might be, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.

The amount of aid entering Gaza has plummeted to its lowest level all year, according to U.N. data. A global hunger monitor has warned of looming famine, and the U.N. has repeatedly accused Israel of hindering and blocking attempts to deliver aid, particularly to Gaza’s north.

UNRWA was established in 1949 following the conflict surrounding the founding of Israel, when 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes. It provides aid, health and education to 5.9 million descendants of those refugees in Gaza, the West Bank and in neighboring Arab countries.

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The new Israeli law does not directly ban UNRWA’s operations in the West Bank and Gaza, both considered by international law to be outside the state of Israel, but under Israeli occupation. However, it will severely impact UNRWA’s ability to work.

UNRWA director of communications Juliette Touma said the onus was on U.N. member states to find a way to get Israel not to implement the law, calling it “a race against time.”

Israel has accused UNRWA staff of involvement in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas militants on Israel, which sparked the conflict in Gaza. The U.N. said in August that nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in the Hamas attack and had been fired. Later, a Hamas commander in Lebanon – killed in September by Israel – was found to have had an UNRWA job.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that despite the overwhelming evidence “we submitted to the U.N. highlighting how Hamas infiltrated UNRWA, the U.N. did nothing to address this reality.”

Touma said that in addition to the U.N. investigation, UNRWA received one formal accusation from Israeli authorities, alleging 100 of its staff were in Palestinian armed groups. UNRWA sought information and cooperation from Israel about the allegations and had not received a response, she said.

–Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Additional reporting by Muhammad Al Gebaly, Nilutpal Timsina, Tom Perry, and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Ros Russell and Rosalba O’Brien