Gaza ‘ceasefire at risk’ if UNRWA forced to stop operations

UK, France and Germany reiterate ‘grave concern’ over Israeli law forbidding contact between its officials and UN agency.

Israel’s forcible shutdown of the UN’s humanitarian work in the Palestinian territory would put the ongoing ceasefire between Israel and Hamas at risk, the UN Palestinian relief agency (UNRWA) at the head of the ban has warned.

UNRWA has for more than seven decades provided essential aid and assistance to Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has described the organisation as “a lifeline” for nearly six million Palestinian refugees under its charge in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Israel had accused UNRWA of providing cover for Hamas, an allegation that the agency strongly denied. It also accused UNRWA staff members of being part of the October 7 attack. Israel has not provided evidence for its claims and accusations.

Subsequently, it passed legislation severing ties with the agency, which came into force on Thursday, a move likely to hamper its vital services after 15 months of war in Gaza.

The agency is banned from operating on Israeli soil and contact between it and Israeli officials is also forbidden.

“If UNRWA is not allowed to continue to bring and distribute supplies, then the fate of this very fragile ceasefire is going to be at risk and is going to be in jeopardy,” Juliette Touma, director of communications of UNRWA, told a Geneva press briefing on Friday.

In a statement, UNRWA spokesperson Jonathan Fowler admitted that the organisation is now operating in a “nightmare scenario”.

Fowler said UNRWA has 5,000 staff still working in Gaza as the “backbone of the international aid operation” and their work may be compromised by the situation.

“Our biggest fear is that there is no plan B,” he said.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres, earlier insisted that despite the ban, “UNRWA clinics across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are open.”

media’s Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said while UNRWA’s work continues, Israel has not renewed visas for at least a dozen of the agency’s workers.

Turkiye condemned the Israeli move as “a blatant violation of international law” and said it “marks a new phase in Israel’s policies of occupation and annexation aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians from their own land”.

On Wednesday, Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a petition by Palestinian human rights group Adalah contesting the ban, but noted the legislation only forbade UNRWA operations on “the sovereign territory of the State of Israel”, not in Gaza and the West Bank that it has occupied.

The ban does apply, however, to Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, where UNRWA has field headquarters for its operations in the West Bank.

In response, Adalah said the law would come into effect “disregarding the catastrophic humanitarian consequences”.