Israel Say UN Agency Helping Palestinian Refugees Must End Operations in Jerusalem by Jan. 30

Barbed-wire covers the walls surrounding the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) West Bank Field Office in Jerusalem on October 29, 2024. (AFP)
Barbed-wire covers the walls surrounding the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) West Bank Field Office in Jerusalem on October 29, 2024. (AFP)
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Israel Say UN Agency Helping Palestinian Refugees Must End Operations in Jerusalem by Jan. 30

Barbed-wire covers the walls surrounding the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) West Bank Field Office in Jerusalem on October 29, 2024. (AFP)
Barbed-wire covers the walls surrounding the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) West Bank Field Office in Jerusalem on October 29, 2024. (AFP)

Israel is telling the United Nations that the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees must end its operations in Jerusalem by Jan. 30.

In a letter sent Friday to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon again accused the agency known as UNRWA of “widespread infiltration” by Hamas militants who carried out the surprise Oct. 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel -- which UNRWA denies.

Danon said he was following up on legislation passed in late October by Israel’s Knesset banning UNRWA from operating in the “sovereign territory of Israel” and banning any contact between Israeli authorities and the UN agency. It was to take effect in 90 days.

In light of the legislation, he said, “UNRWA is required to cease its operations in Jerusalem, and evacuate all premises in which it operates in the city, no later than 30 January 2025.”

Danon said UNRWA had received notices from the Israeli Land Authority on Jan. 14, 2024 and May 28, 2024, indicating that its use of two properties in Jerusalem was done without proper authorization and demanding their evacuation. “These notices were bluntly disregarded by UNRWA, while shielding behind its immunity,” he said.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a speech in Oslo last week that for Israel, its sovereign territory refers to “occupied East Jerusalem.”

Its staff there “will be compelled to withdraw under protest,” and “local staff will remain and continue to provide emergency assistance and, where possible, education and primary healthcare.”

He said UNRWA will also “stay and deliver” in Gaza and the West Bank, which are occupied Palestinian territories and were not mentioned in Danon’s letter.

UNRWA has been the main agency procuring and distributing aid in the Gaza Strip, where almost the entire population of around 2 million Palestinians relies on the agency for healthcare and education.



Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)

The humanitarian aid system in Gaza is "facing total collapse" because of Israel's blockade on aid supplies since March 2, the heads of 12 major aid organizations warned Thursday, urging Israel to let them "do our jobs".

Israel has vowed to maintain its blockage on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory, saying it is the only way to force Hamas to release the 58 hostages still held there.

"Every single person in Gaza is relying on humanitarian aid to survive," the chief executives of 12 NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, wrote in a joint statement.

"That lifeline has been completely cut off since a blockade on all aid supplies was imposed by Israeli authorities on March 2," they said, adding that "This is one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation."

A survey of 43 international and Palestinian aid organizations working in Gaza found that almost all have suspended or drastically cut services since a ceasefire ended on March 18, "with widespread and indiscriminate bombing making it extremely dangerous to move around", the NGOs said.

"Famine is not just a risk, but likely rapidly unfolding in almost all parts of Gaza," they said. "Survival itself is now slipping out of reach and the humanitarian system is at breaking point."

"We call on all parties to guarantee the safety of our staff and to allow the safe, unfettered access of aid into and across Gaza through all entry points, and for world leaders to oppose further restrictions."

Israel's renewed assault has killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.