‘UNRWA has no place in new Gaza’: Hamas rebukes US ‘Peace Council’
UNRWA continues to distribute flour bags to the residents of the Gaza Strip in Jabalia, 9 March 2025
The Palestine Chronicle reports on 2 July 2026:
Key Developments
- Hamas and the Palestinian Foreign Ministry rejected US calls to exclude UNRWA from “New Gaza.”
- Hamas said targeting UNRWA aims to erase the refugee issue and undermine the right of return.
- Palestine reaffirmed that UNRWA remains an irreplaceable UN agency with an internationally mandated role.
Hamas Rejects US Position on UNRWA
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned on Thursday statements by the US administration’s Board of Peace, which declared that “UNRWA has no place in the new Gaza,” saying the position aligns with Israeli efforts to dismantle the UN agency and erase the Palestinian refugee issue.
The movement said targeting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is an attack on international legitimacy because the agency was established by a mandate of the UN General Assembly and remains an international witness to the Nakba and the rights of Palestinian refugees.
Hamas warned that attempts to reduce UNRWA’s mandate, replace it or halt its funding go beyond humanitarian issues and are aimed at undermining Palestinians’ historical rights, “foremost among them the right of return.”
The movement stressed that the agency’s continued work is even more essential amid what it described as the humanitarian catastrophe created by Israel’s war on Gaza, and called on the United Nations, donor countries and the international community to guarantee UNRWA’s continued operation and protect its international mandate.