Israel told the United Nations on Friday that its humanitarian agency known as UNRWA, an essential buoy for two million Palestinians during the 15 months of war in Gaza, had six days to stop all its operations in East Jerusalem .
The Israel Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, told a letter to the UN secretary general, António Guterres: “UNRWA must stop operations in Jerusalem and evacuate all the locals in which it operates in the city, no later than January 30. 2025. “
The letter was the first official notification of Israel to the UN on the way in which he planned to apply the law adopted by the Israeli Parliament in October prohibiting UNRWA, officially known as the Office of Rescue and United Nations work for Palestine refugees in the Middle East, to operate on Israeli territory. . The measure also prohibited Israeli officials to dialogue with UNRWA officials and employees.
This decision comes after months of tensions between the Israeli government and the United Nations agency, which provides food, shelter, health care, professional training and education for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza occupied by Israel , in particular following the attack by Hamas. October 7, 2023, attacks against Israel which trigger war. The agency also helps the Palestinians who live in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, where the Palestinians moved during the Israel Foundation has lived for decades.
Israel accused UNRWA of being infiltrated by members of Hamas. But two UN surveys revealed that less than 10 employees out of nearly 13,000 were affiliated with the Palestinian Armed group, and they were dismissed.
Two hundred and sixty-nine members of UNRWA staff were killed in Gaza-the most important loss among UN employees in a conflict, according to officials.
Danon said in the letter that Israel would continue to cooperate with the UN and “all his agencies which have not been infiltrated by terrorist organizations”.
Asked for comments, Farhan Haq, UN spokesperson, spoke of the previous declarations of Mr. Guterres fiercely defending UNRWA’s work as being irreplaceable and essential, in particular in Gaza, where Israeli bombardments aimed at eating Hamas have moved most of the population and killed around 47,000 people, according to Gazaouis officials, who do no distinction between civilians and combatants.
A spokesperson for UNRWA also transmitted requests for comments to the office of Mr. Guterres, since the letter was sent to him.
Mr. Guterres said at a meeting of the UN Security Council earlier this week on the situation in Gaza: “First, the United Nations entities – including the backbone of our humanitarian response, the UNRWA – must be able to fulfill their functions without hindrance. »»
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini also asked the Council last week to intervene to prevent Israel from applying the law prohibiting his agency. He said that such actions “massively weaken the international humanitarian response” in Gaza and “considerably aggravate the living conditions already catastrophic”.
Before sending the letter, Lazzarini told journalists last Friday that his agency had received no clear directive from Israel on the way the measures would be implemented. He also said that he expected UNRWA to continue his work, even if he has come up against huge logistical challenges in the West Bank and Gaza, and that his work in Jerusalem would be compromised.
In the letter, Israel asked UNRWA to evacuate two sites located in the districts of Maalot Dafna and Kfar Aqueb in East Jerusalem, considered by international law as part of the West Bank and under occupation. Israel considers the set of Jerusalem as part of Israel.
UNRWA was created in 1949 to help the Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 Israeli War.
The agency benefits from large support among the UN member states, which have urged Israel not to ban the work of the agency. After Israel accused Hamas of infiltrating the agency, the Biden administration suspended Millions of dollars in annual funding at UNRWA and Congress in March prohibited American funding for the organization for a year.
During his first presidential mandate, Donald J. Trump withdrew the financing of UNRWA in 2018, and he should continue to restrict his funding.
Representative Elise Stefanik, chosen by Mr. Trump to be UN UN Ambassador to the UN, criticized the humanitarian agency as “anti-Semitic” during her hearing in the Senate this week, and said she was supporting Israel’s “biblical rights” on the West Bank.
This position is in contradiction with the position of the UN according to which the West Bank is a occupied Palestinian territory.
Mr. Lazzarini said In a post on x Friday, preventing UNRWA from operating “could sabotage” the provisional ceasefire recently concluded between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, “missing the hopes of people who have endured indescribable sufferings ».
He said that during the first three days of the truce, UNRWA had brought food to a million people in Gaza and had already distributed it to around 3,000 people in northern Gaza, where the UN and humanitarian agencies warned that the population was on the brink. from famine.
“UNRWA’s work must continue in Gaza + throughout the occupied Palestinian territory,” said Mr. Lazzarini.
