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Israel notifies the UN of severing ties with the agency for the Palestinians

2024-11-04 08:50:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Israel said it formally notified the United Nations on November 4 of its decision to cut ties with UNRWA, the agency that supports Palestinian refugees.

This announcement comes after Israeli lawmakers voted to ban the organization.

"At the direction of Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has notified the UN of the cancellation of the agreement between the State of Israel and UNRWA," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"UNRWA, whose workers participated in the October 7 massacre and many of whose workers are Hamas operatives, is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip, not part of the solution," Katz was quoted as saying.

Hamas is a Palestinian group declared a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. The war in Gaza started after this group attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 people and kidnapping nearly 250 others. As a result of the Israeli offensive, more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.

Last month, Israel's Parliament approved the decision to close UNRWA's operations in Israel and East Jerusalem, despite condemnation from the international community, including ally Washington.

If implemented, the ban on the UN agency - which for more than seven decades has provided much-needed aid throughout the Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees elsewhere - will be a blow to humanitarian work in Gaza, experts said.

But Katz has rejected these arguments, saying that only a fraction of the aid has been sent to Gaza by UNRWA.

"Even now, most of the humanitarian aid in Gaza is sent by other organizations, and only 13 percent is sent by UNRWA," Katz said.

"The State of Israel is committed to international law and will continue to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip in a manner that will not jeopardize the security of Israel's citizens," he added.

In January, Israel accused dozens of UNRWA workers in Gaza of involvement in the October 7, 2023, attack.

Several investigations found that nine workers "may have been involved" in the October 7 attack, but no evidence was found to support Israel's main allegations.

The ban has raised fears among UN agency workers in the occupied West Bank that they may face problems, but also in other places such as East Jerusalem or Israel.

UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies have accused Israeli authorities of restricting aid deliveries to Gaza, where most of the 2.3 million population has been displaced several times during the war.