‘If UNRWA implodes tomorrow, there’d be no alternative’
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, meets with internally displaced people in Rafah during his visit to Gaza, 12 December 2023
Ghousoon Bisharat and Meron Rapoport report in +972 on 27 February 2025:
At the end of last month, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — the main humanitarian organization for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, and across the Middle East — found itself in uncharted waters. In October, the Israeli Knesset had passed two laws targeting the agency, which came into effect on Jan. 30. The first banned the agency from operating in East Jerusalem, where UNRWA runs schools, health clinics, and vocational training centers and maintains one of its headquarters. The second severed ties between Israel and UNRWA and prohibited Israeli authorities from contacting the agency; without being able to coordinate with Israeli officials, UNRWA warned that it could be forced to halt all of its livesaving work in the West Bank and Gaza, where it remains the largest provider of aid.
The immediate impact of Israel’s ban was to evict UNRWA’s international staff from the occupied Palestinian territories, as their visas were shortened to expire just before the laws took effect. Meanwhile, Adalah and Gisha, two legal organizations inside Israel, have filed a petition with the Israeli Supreme Court, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) may issue an advisory opinion about the two Israeli laws in the coming days.
Yet despite the ban and significant funding cuts to the agency, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, told +972 that agency continues its essential work, even in East Jerusalem. In Gaza, the agency has distributed food to more than 1.9 million Palestinians during the ceasefire and has also resumed its teaching both online and onsite, albeit on a limited scale. In the West Bank, UNRWA’s schools and health centers remain open, although its activities have been severely hampered by the ongoing Israeli military operation in northern refugee camps.