Sharon Zhang
Truthout / January 22, 2025
The ban is set to go into effect next week, as aid groups are scrambling to alleviate Israel’s humanitarian catastrophe.
Human rights experts are warning that Israel’s ban on Palestinians’ main humanitarian aid agency will remove the “backbone” of the entire aid operation in Gaza and beyond when it goes into effect next week, threatening to prolong or worsen the humanitarian catastrophe Israel has created.
In a research brief published by Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) on Wednesday, researchers say that the ban on UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza threatens to cut the lifeline for 2 million Palestinians in Gaza dependent on aid — at a time when Israel is supposed to be allowing an increased amount of humanitarian aid as part of its ceasefire agreement.
“The suffering of the population, particularly in Gaza, will increase dramatically as the backbone of the humanitarian operation crumbles without an alternative structure being in place,” the report says.
The Israeli Knesset’s laws banning UNRWA in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and labelling it as a “terror” group, without substantial evidence, are set to go into effect on January 28. They are the culmination of years of efforts from Israel seeking to vilify and ban the agency that, unlike any other in the UN, not just coordinates aid but also provides government-like services like schooling, health care and housing.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel is supposed to allow 600 aid trucks into Gaza per day — after over a year of its near-total aid blockade that worsened in recent months. So far, Israel has been adhering to that provision, with the UN reporting on Wednesday that Israel has allowed 2,400 aid trucks into the region since Sunday.
However, this operation will be put in jeopardy by the ban, PRIO’s report points out, potentially leaving millions of Palestinians yet again desperate for aid despite the ceasefire. Replacing UNRWA’s operational work could be costly and would take years to implement.
“As the ceasefire takes effect, significantly increased amounts of humanitarian aid will finally be allowed into Gaza. That aid will need to be distributed, a role UNRWA will lead as the ‘backbone’ of the humanitarian operation in Gaza. The UNRWA ban will therefore create a contradiction — just as more aid is coming in, the logistical support for this will be destroyed,” the report says.
The UN and other unaffiliated aid groups have repeatedly warned throughout the genocide that there is no replacement for UNRWA and that the aid operation in Gaza would be thrown into total disarray without UNRWA’s coordination and distribution work. Israeli officials, in their seeming mission to create a humanitarian catastrophe and maximize suffering in Gaza, have forged on without providing any alternatives for the crucial aid group.
The report also warns that Israel will likely seize the UNRWA field office in East Jerusalem and evict the agency — “in flagrant violation of international law” — in order to turn the property into an Israeli settlement. The experts say this has serious implications for the expansion of Israel’s colonization of Palestine.
“The takeover of the UNRWA Field Office and the closing of the UNRWA schools will mean the expulsion of the main UN footprint from Jerusalem,” the report says. “This will be a strong symbolic act in underscoring the Israeli position that both West- and East-Jerusalem are Israeli sovereign territory, in contravention of international law.”
Further, as UNRWA and other humanitarian groups have repeatedly cautioned, the ban could imperil the educational and health care system for Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Before the genocide, UNRWA provided education for nearly 300,000 children in Palestine and administered millions of health care visits a year.
“UNRWA provides a lifeline to some of the most vulnerable communities in the region,” said the report’s lead author, Jørgen Jensehaugen, a Senior Researcher for PRIO. “In less than one week’s time, its collapse in Israeli-controlled areas could cripple the humanitarian operation in Gaza, and lead to a collapse of healthcare and education for thousands in the West Bank.”
Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering politics, climate and labour
