UNRWA Vows to Continue Operations Despite Israeli Ban
Gaza, MINA – UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma has vowed not to shut down operations on January 31 when a new Israeli law banning the agency takes effect, the American news website Axios reported on Wednesday as quoted by Palestine Chronicle.
“We plan to stay in Gaza and work as long as we can until we can’t. It will be a disaster if the bill is implemented,” Touma reportedly said. “Who is going to do the work?”
This comes as State Department officials warned the Trump administration transition team that “there could be a humanitarian ‘catastrophe’ in Gaza” once the law is implemented, the report added, citing three US officials. They say there is “no serious backup plan for providing humanitarian supplies and services to Palestinians.”
Last October, Israeli lawmakers voted 92-10 in favor of a law barring UNRWA from conducting “any activity” inside Israeli territory, and 87-9 in favor of another bill that restricts the agency’s activities in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank.
Axios reported that according to US officials, “neither Israel nor the UN has made any serious plans for what happens next.” US and Israeli officials, the report added, said that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has refused over the past two months “to engage in a discussion with Israel about alternative UN agencies that could take on some of UNRWA’s roles.”
A senior Israeli official told Axios that his government has not made any decision on alternative plans in Gaza when the time comes.
In December, Guterres wrote in a letter to members of the UN General Assembly that “There is currently no realistic alternative to UNRWA which could adequately provide the services and assistance required.”
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement on Wednesday that “If implemented, the decision will have a disastrous impact on the people we support.”
“This includes the delivery of humanitarian aid to people in Gaza and basic services in the occupied West Bank, including education for 50,000 children who go to UNRWA schools,” he stressed.
Lazzarini emphasized that other UN Agencies ‘have acknowledged that they cannot fill the void and directly provide education and healthcare.”
He said the “fate and future” of over 650,000 children in Gaza, who are out of school for a second year in a row, “hangs in the balance.”
“In the absence of UNRWA or functioning Palestinian institutions, the State of Israel – as an occupying power – would have to provide assistance and services to the population across the occupied Palestinian territory, including in Gaza,” Lazzarini stated. (T/RE1/P2)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
