Israel passes laws that could halt UNRWA’s aid delivery to Gaza – National

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******* passes laws that could halt UNRWA’s aid delivery to Gaza – National

*******’s parliament has passed two laws that could prevent the U.N. agency for ************ refugees, a main provider of aid to Gaza, from being able to continue its work.

The laws ban the agency, UNRWA, from operating and cut all ties between the agency and the ******** government. It’s the culmination of a long-running campaign against the agency, which ******* contends has been infiltrated by ******. But supporters say *******’s real aim is to sideline the issue of ************ refugees.

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1:47
Canada resumes UNRWA funding paused after alleged staff role in ******* attacks

The agency is the major distributor of aid in Gaza and provides education, health and other basic services to millions of ************ refugees across the region, including in the ********-occupied West Bank.

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The head of the agency, Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini, called the move “unprecedented” on X following the vote and said the bills “will only deepen the suffering Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer *****.”

******* accuses the agency of turning a ****** eye to staff members it says belong to ******, divert aid and use UNRWA facilities for military purposes. ******* says around a dozen of its 13,000 employees in Gaza participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 ******* on southern *******. The agency denies it knowingly aids armed groups and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants among its staff.

The bills severely hamper UNRWA

One of the bills passed Monday evening bans all UNRWA activities and services on ******** soil and is set to take effect in three months.

The second bill severs all ties between government employees and UNRWA and strips its staff of their legal immunities.

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Together, the bills likely bar the agency from operating in ******* and the ************ territories, because ******* controls access to both Gaza and the West Bank. It could force the agency to relocate its headquarters from ********-annexed east Jerusalem.

Lazzarini warned earlier this month that humanitarian operations in Gaza “may disintegrate” if the legislation passes, disrupting the provision of food, shelter and health care as winter sets in.

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2:15
UNRWA accusing ******* of blocking aid shipment into Gaza

Gaza’s population of some 2.3 million is almost entirely dependent on aid to survive. Around 90% of the population has been displaced. Hundreds of thousands live in tent camps and schools-turned-shelters, most run by UNRWA. Experts say hunger is rampant. *******’s campaign in Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7 ******* has ******* over 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, whose count does not differentiate between civilians and militants.

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******* is reportedly considering taking over aid distribution itself or subcontracting it, but it has yet to put forth a concrete plan. Any such effort would likely require a large number of troops and other resources at a time when ******* is at conflict on two fronts in Gaza and Lebanon.

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Other U.N. agencies and aid groups say there is no substitute for UNRWA, which also runs 96 schools hosting around 47,000 students, three vocational training centers and 43 health centers in the ********-occupied West Bank.

A decades-old mission rooted in the conflict’s bitter history

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for ************ Refugees in the Near East was established to help the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now ******* during the 1948 war surrounding *******’s creation,

UNRWA supporters say ******* hopes to erase the ************ ******** issue by dismantling the agency. ******* says the refugees should be permanently resettled outside its borders.

Palestinians say refugees and their descendants, who now number nearly 6 million, should be allowed to exercise their right under international law to return home. ******* refuses, saying the result would be a ************ majority inside its borders.

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The issue was among the thorniest in the peace process, which ground to a halt in 2009.

UNRWA operates schools, health clinics, infrastructure projects and aid programs in ******** camps that have grown into urban neighborhoods in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

A long-running dispute over UNRWA’s neutrality

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******* says hundreds of ************ militants work for UNRWA, without providing evidence, and that more than a dozen employees took part in ******’ Oct. 7, 2023 *******.

UNRWA immediately fired the employees accused of taking part in the Oct. 7 *******, in which ******-led militants ******* some 1,200 people and abducted around 250.

An independent investigation earlier this year found that UNRWA had “robust” mechanisms to ensure its neutrality but pointed to gaps in implementation, including staff publicly expressing political views and textbooks with “problematic content” in UNRWA-run schools.

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UNRWA says it thoroughly investigates any allegations of wrongdoing and holds staff accountable, and that it provides lists of all of its staff to ******* and host countries. It says ******* has largely ignored its requests to provide evidence for its claims against staffers.

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2:58
*******-******: Gaza’s quality of life has been knocked back to 1950s, UNDP says

******* has repeatedly struck U.N. schools-turned-shelters, claiming ****** fighters operate inside them. It also says it has uncovered tunnels running near or under UNRWA facilities.

UNRWA has long been the biggest single employer in Gaza, where the population has been impoverished by years of ******** and Egyptian blockade. ****** has ruled the territory since 2007, and it has civilian political operations alongside its armed wing.

The militant wings of ****** and other groups are highly secretive, their members virtually unknown outside of intelligence agencies. That complicates efforts by civilian organizations to vet employees.

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****** Sharif, an UNRWA teacher in southern Lebanon, was ******* last month along with his family in an ******** airstrike. It then emerged that he was a senior ****** commander, something he had kept secret.

Lazzarini, UNRWA’s head, said Sharif was suspended without pay in March after the agency learned he belonged to ******’ political party, and that an investigation had been launched. He said he didn’t know Sharif was a militant commander until after his ******.

UNRWA has strong international support

Several Western countries suspended funding for UNRWA after the allegations related to the Oct. 7 *******. All except the ******* States, which had been its biggest donor, have since restored it.

The Biden administration  recently warned ******* that if it did not allow more aid into Gaza it could lose out on some of the crucial ********* military assistance it has relied on throughout the war.

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The letter sent by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to their ******** counterparts said they shared ******** concerns about “the serious allegations” of UNRWA employees taking part in the Oct. 7 ******* and of “****** misusing UNRWA facilities.”

But it said enacting the bills’ restrictions “would devastate the Gaza humanitarian response at this critical moment … which could have implications under relevant U.S. law and policy.”

A ****** statement from Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Britain last week expressed “grave concern” over the legislation. It said the agency provides “essential and life-saving humanitarian aid,” the provision of which would be “severely hampered, if not impossible” without it.

Frankel and Lidman reported from Jerusalem.

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