UNRWA and Israel

[14] A few days after the conclusion of the war, Israeli defense minister Moshe Dayan wrote in the closing minutes of a governmental meeting on 19 June 1967 that: "800,000 refugees are now under our responsibility, after years of the world shouting at the Arab states to do something about it."

[20] Operating in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, the agency's mandate has shifted from providing employment and humanitarian aid to delivering healthcare, schooling, and social services to the population it serves.

[22] Israel has been a longtime critic of UNRWA[23][24] and considers it an obstacle to resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict, by preventing the descendants of refugees from settling in their present locations and keeping the question of return open.

[34][35] On 17 January 2024, UNRWA announced the creation of an independent Review Group to be led by Catherine Colonna, former French Minister of Foreign Affairs, to assess whether the Agency is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious breaches when they are made.

[39] During the Al-Aqsa Intifada, which started in late 2000, UNRWA often complained that Israeli road closures, curfews and checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza interfered with its ability to carry out its humanitarian mandate.

According to the release from 26 August 2013, "UNRWA deeply regrets to confirm that one of its staff members, a 34-year-old father of four, was shot dead by Israeli forces and killed instantly in an operation in Kalandia refugee camp in the West Bank at approximately seven o'clock this morning.

[54][55] The peace initiative between Israel and Palestine promoted by the Trump Administration, and overseen by Jared Kushner, advocated the winding down of UNRWA through a campaign to disrupt it, and aimed to strip Palestinians of their refugee status, according to emails leaked to Foreign Policy magazine.

[60] On 17 January 2024, UNRWA had already announced the creation of an independent Review Group to be led by Catherine Colonna, former French Minister of Foreign Affairs, to assess whether the Agency is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious breaches when they are made.

[66] Several international organisations, such as the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders, stated that the "cruel" decision to suspend funding would exacerbate the humanitarian situation in Gaza caused by the Israeli invasion.

On 4 February 2009, UNRWA halted aid shipments into the Gaza Strip after it accused Hamas of breaking into a UN warehouse and stealing tonnes of blankets and food which had been earmarked for needy families.

[citation needed] Additionally, teachers and other educational staff of UNRWA have been reported praising Hamas's terrorism on social media, referring to it as an "unforgettable glorious morning" and a "splendid sight.

"[102][103][104] However, the WSJ calls this response "Ostrich defense" and rejects Lazzarini's suggestion that such a sophisticated engineering operation could be completed after UNRWA had moved, in less than three months, amid Israeli bombardment.

"[118] It is unclear whether Schanzer knew he was misleading the Committee, though he also repeated the assertion at an event hosted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies entitled "The Israeli–Palestinian Conflict" on 13 August 2014, where he stated there was "at least one booby-trapped tunnel under one of its facilities.

[139] On 28 January 2024, in an article titled "Details Emerge on U.N. Workers Accused of Aiding Hamas Raid", The New York Times reported on allegations made in an Israeli intelligence dossier about some UNRWA employees.

[142] On 3 February 2024, on the Al-Jazeera English current affairs programme The Listening Post, Palestinian rights lawyer Diana Buttu opined that the "problem with these types of allegations is that they adopt the Israeli narrative without questioning or second-guessing it".

"[146] On 5 February 2024, Channel 4 said that the six-page dossier contains no evidence to support Israel's claim other than a statement that "From intelligence information, documents and identity cards seized during the course of the fighting, it is now possible to flag around 190 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist operatives who serve as UNRWA employees.

"[152] He further emphasized, "To protect the agency's ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay", adding that "any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror" would be held accountable.

[158] His spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric further stated that the UN chief had directed Lazzarini to lead an investigation to ensure swift termination and potential criminal prosecution of any UNRWA employee implicated in or aiding 7 October attacks.

[163] According to a 28 January statement by Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, the decision to suspend funding could be a violation of the Genocide Convention, and "overtly defies" the provisional rulings in South Africa v.

[177] On 5 March, Philippe Lazzarini stated, "The campaign against UNRWA is intended to shift the longstanding political parameters for peace in the occupied Palestinian territory set by the General Assembly and the Security Council, without consulting either body.

He emphasized the organization's "indispensable" role as a major humanitarian service provider in the region, adding that it is "imperative that UNRWA immediately, as it said it would, investigate; that it hold people accountable as necessary; and that it review its procedures".

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said: "Let's not impugn the good work of a whole agency because of the potential bad action here of a small number".

[231] Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International, stated that the world's richest countries had made a "heartless decision ... to punish the most vulnerable population on earth because of the alleged crimes of 12 people".

[241] The same day, Spanish Social Affairs minister Pablo Bustinduy called out the suspension of UNRWA funds by other western countries "an unjustifiable collective punishment of the Palestinian people".

[248] Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin stated: "We call on the international community, especially major donors, to prioritize the lives of the people in Gaza, reconsider the decision to suspend funding, and continue to support the work of UNRWA.

[255] On 23 February 2024, a group of Israel humanitarian organizations — including Doctors for Human Rights, B'Tselem, Breaking the Silence, Gisha, City of Nations, Checkpoint Watch, and Fighters for Peace — called on donors to restore UNRWA funding.

[257] The Palestine Liberation Organization's Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh urged countries planning to withdraw funding from UNRWA to reconsider their decision due to significant political and humanitarian concerns.

[258] Hamas's press office stated via Telegram that the group implored the UN and international organizations "to not cave in to the threats and blackmail" from Israel,[157] and accused what they called "the Zionist entity" of a "campaign of incitement" against UN agencies delivering aid to Gaza.

[260] The Intercept suggested that the timing of the resulting controversy was intended to distract media attention from the International Court of Justice ruling of provisional measures against Israel, issued on the same day.

[269] The foreign ministers of UK, France, Germany, Australia, Canada, Japan, and South Korea stated that restricting UNRWA would have "devastating consequences on an already critical and rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation" in the Gaza Strip.