ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has warned against the dangers of dismantling the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a day before a ban on UNRWA in Israel is implemented tomorrow, Thursday.
Israeli lawmakers in October adopted legislation that bans UNRWA’s operation on Israeli land — including East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not recognized internationally — and contact with Israeli authorities from Jan. 30.
“Israel seeks to dismantle not only the structures that are critical to provide humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people, but also to erode the identity of Palestinian people and the rights they possess,” Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Munir Akram said in a statement during a briefing on UNRWA at the UN Security Council.
Akram described the role of UNRWA as being “critical” to the successful implementation of an ongoing ceasefire signed between Hamas and Israel earlier this month, and the provision of adequate humanitarian assistance and reconstruction of Gaza.
UNRWA has said the order to cease operations was contradictory to Israel’s international obligations as a UN member state. UNRWA has a total workforce of about 30,000 people working with Palestinian refugees around the Middle East.
Israeli lawmakers who drafted the law banning UNRWA had cited what they described as the involvement of some of the agency’s staffers in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel and staffers having membership in Hamas and other armed groups. A UN investigation found that nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in the attack and fired them.
The legislation has alarmed the UN and some of Israel’s Western allies who fear it would further worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza after 15 months of war. The ban does not refer to operations in the West Bank and Gaza. However, the restrictions on Israeli authorities having contact with the agency is likely to impact operations there.
Most of the international community, including the UN, considers East Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and Gaza, to be territory occupied by Israel. However, the Israeli government considers all of Jerusalem to be part of the country.
