As Millions Starve in Gaza, Israel Terminates Agreement With UNRWA

Israel's Foreign Affairs Ministry on Sunday formally notified the United Nations that it has terminated a decades-old legal agreement governing the country's relations with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, a move that aid workers and advocacy groups say will spell further disaster for Gaza's besieged and famine-stricken population as winter approaches.

The director-general of the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry announced the decision to scrap the 1967 agreement in a letter to the president of the U.N. General Assembly, a message sent roughly a week after Israeli lawmakers approved legislation banning the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from operating or providing services "in the sovereign territory of the state of Israel."

The new letter states that the legislation "will enter into effect following a three-month period."

The Washington Postreported Monday that Juliette Touma, UNRWA's communications director, said that "the agency expected to continue its work coordinating the distribution of aid in Gaza and the West Bank at the operational level."

But aid groups have warned that Israel's UNRWA ban could inflict fatal damage to humanitarian operations in Gaza and the West Bank, given Israeli control over access to the illegally occupied territories. The legislation Israeli lawmakers passed last week bars the government from issuing work permits to foreign UNRWA staff and prevents the military from coordinating with the aid agency.

"The human cost of this ban is immeasurable," Mara Kronenfeld, executive director of UNRWA USA, said in a statement last week. "This Israeli Knesset vote banning UNRWA is not merely an attack on the U.N. agency; it's an attack on the fundamental rights and dignity due to all human beings. The consequences of this ban could result in the loss of tens of thousands, if not more, precious Palestinian lives. Where is the humanity?"

"You can hear children crying, people screaming, people running for their lives, and it has been nonstop for 24 hours. There's nowhere to go. People are trapped."

The U.S., Israel's main ally and arms supplier, urged the Israeli government last week not to implement the newly passed legislation, even though the U.S. has yet to restore its own funding to UNRWA. The Biden administration suspended U.S. funding for UNRWA in January after Israel accused a small number of agency employees of taking part in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.

The U.N. fired nine UNRWA workers after an investigation determined that they "may have been involved" in the attack. UNRWA has roughly 13,000 staffers in the Gaza Strip, and the agency is the most important aid group operating in the enclave.

Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, argued that by terminating its agreement with UNRWA, "Israel is also further breaking U.S. law prohibiting the restriction of aid delivery."

"It's a definitive rejection of an explicit demand in the Biden administration's October 13 letter and by law must result in halting U.S. arms and military aid to Israel," Williams added.

The Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry's announcement came as Israel's military continued its bombing campaign and ground attacks across Gaza. Reutersreported that at least a dozen Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes on Monday, including seven people in an attack on houses in northern Gaza.

"It is absolutely terrifying," Louise Wateridge, an UNRWA spokesperson, told Al Jazeera on Saturday, referring to conditions on the ground in Gaza. "You can hear children crying, people screaming, people running for their lives, and it has been nonstop for 24 hours. There's nowhere to go. People are trapped."

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA's commissioner-general, said Monday that Israeli authorities allowed an average of just 30 aid trucks to enter Gaza per day last month.

Prior to October 7, 2023, around 500 aid trucks were entering the enclave daily.

"This cannot meet the needs of over 2 million people, many of whom are starving, sick, and in desperate conditions," Lazzarini said Monday. "Restricting humanitarian access and at the same time dismantling UNRWA will add an additional layer of suffering to already unspeakable suffering."

"Only political will," he added, "can put an end to a politically made situation."