UN agency for Palestinian refugees urges world to save it from Israeli ban

UNITED NATIONS — The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees urged the world Wednesday to save it from an Israeli ban that would have “disastrous consequences” for millions of people caught up in the war in Gaza.

Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the agency known as UNRWA, told the 193 nations of the U.N. General Assembly that they must take action to prevent Israel from implementing legislation that prohibits the agency's operations in the Palestinian territories. The laws, adopted by Israel’s parliament last month, take effect in 90 days.

UNRWA was established by the General Assembly in 1949 to provide relief for Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel’s establishment, as well as their descendants, until there is a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

UNRWA has been the main agency distributing humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, where almost the entire population of around 2.3 million Palestinians relies on aid for survival amid Israel’s more than yearlong war with Hamas. Experts say hunger is rampant.

Assembly President Philemon Yang told members at Wednesday’s informal meeting that Israel’s legislation “constitutes an intolerable affront to the authority of this assembly, an affront to international law and, most importantly, an affront to the human dignity of innocent Palestinian civilians."

Yang said the assembly extended UNRWA’s mandate — most recently in December 2022 — by an overwhelming majority until June 30, 2026. He urgently called on Israel to comply with its international legal obligations, the U.N. Charter and U.N. resolutions.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly said there is no alternative to UNRWA, and Yang stressed that a halt to its activities “would exacerbate an already catastrophic humanitarian situation.”

Israel alleges that around a dozen of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff in Gaza participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. It recently provided the U.N. with over 100 names of UNRWA staff it claims have militant ties.

The agency denies it knowingly aids armed groups and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants among its staff. Lazzarini said the U.N. has asked Israel for details so it can investigate but has received no response.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon reiterated Israeli accusations that UNRWA is riddled with supporters of Hamas and educates Palestinian children to “hate.” He stressed that Gaza’s future cannot include Hamas or UNRWA.

Sitting next to released Israeli hostage Mia Schem, he strongly criticized the General Assembly and all other U.N. bodies for failing to condemn Hamas or to hold a single session dedicated to the hostages.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, echoed calls for countries to act collectively to save UNRWA, accusing Israel of an “open assault” against the agency partly aimed at stripping Palestinians of their refugee status and rights.

“As we gather here, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are facing imminent death,” he said of northern Gaza.

Acting U.N. humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya said Tuesday that northern Gaza has been under “a near-total brutal siege” for the past month and Palestinian civilians are starving while the world watches.

“These atrocities must stop,” Msuya said in a posting on X. “Israeli military ground operations have left Palestinians without the essentials to survive, forced them to flee for safety multiple times, and cut off their escape and supply routes.”

Lebanon’s U.N. Ambassador Hadi Hachem, speaking on behalf of the U.N.’s 22-member Arab Group, called on the General Assembly to confront Israel’s “dangerous precedent” and take urgent measures to defend UNRWA and uphold international law.