Islam Times - Gaza Plight and Starvation to Escalate after Tel Aviv Ban on UNRWA

Islam Times - While Gaza has been reduced to ruins due to the massive Israeli attacks and there is no safe place in this coastal enclave, the Israelis do not stop at this catastrophic situation and plan to tighten the blockade on the Palestinians.

In this connection, the Knesset on Monday passed a ban on the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in the areas occupied by the Israeli regime. Defending the bill, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "UNRWA works who were involved in terrorist activities against Israel should be punished."

Israeli media reported that the new law includes a ban on UNRWA's activities in Al-Quds (Jerusalem), Gaza and the West Bank.

According to this bill, the 1967 agreement that allowed UNRWA to operate in the occupied territories will be revoked and all activities of this agency will be stopped and any communication between Israeli officials and UNRWA employees will be prohibited.

The purpose of this law is to "prevent any UNRWA activities in Israel" and it specifies that "UNRWA will not operate any representative office, will not provide any services and will not carry out any activities directly or indirectly in Israel."

World reactions

The move came after the Knesset Committee for Foreign Affairs and Security on October 13 passed a bill banning the aid agency, paving the way for second and third votings in the Knesset and transforming it into an official law, a move that aroused the ire of the world community.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the move as "unacceptable" and carrying gave consequences for the displaced Palestinians. UNRWA, for its part, strongly condemned the ban.

The Hamas movement emphasized in a statement that "we condemn the approval of the law banning the activities of UNRWA and declare our opposition to it, and we consider it a part of the war to destroy the Palestinian cause."

The seven countries of France, Germany, Britain, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea have also expressed their deep concern over the ban and warned that Israel is banning an agency that provides humanitarian and essential services for the survival of Palestinian refugees.

Although the US is an accomplice of the leaders of Tel Aviv in their genocidal war on Gaza, it reacted to the move in a largely face-saving step, saying: "We told Israel that we are deeply concerned about the proposed law to ban UNRWA."

What are UNRWA duties?

UNRWA is an organization that was founded in 1949, a year after foundation of Israel, with its duty being providing aid to Palestinian refugees who have been displaced from their homes due to long-term conflict.

After June war of 1967 and occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 10 camps were established to host new waves of refugees including asylum seeker and non-asaylum seekers, and their management was entrusted to the UNRWA.

One of the most important parts of UNRWA's activity is providing free education to Palestinian refugees, which in the past few decades has provided many job opportunities for the youth of this population of Palestinians by building schools in Gaza and teaching them at different levels. Health care accounts for a major part of the UNRWA services. These services include initial care, vaccination, and prevention plans.

UNRWA's aim of these measures is to improve the level of public health among refugees and reduce the spread of diseases in this society. In addition to educational and health assistance, UNRWA has also planned social and psychological programs for Palestinian refugees. These programs are provided especially for children and young people who are exposed to psychological trauma caused by war and displacement.

Despite the difficulties, UNRWA plays a highly important role in improving the situation of Palestinian refugees. This organization has been able to improve the living conditions of many refugees by providing various services.

The future of UNRWA depends on the amount of financial and international support. If this support continues to be sufficient, the agency will be able to continue providing services, but if financial and political problems persist, UNRWA may be forced to cut some of its programs or even close its programs completely in some areas.

UNRWA role amid Gaza war

Having experienced difficult times due to living under the shadow of the occupation over the past 8 decades, after the Israeli war on Gaza, UNRWA considers itself responsible for supporting about 2.2 million people, including residents of Gaza, refugees and others. It rushed to serve in health centers and supply food with all his capacities when war started. UNRWA employees received the humanitarian aid that was sent to Gaza from time to time and distributed it to the people despite all the Israeli-estsblished hurdles.

Estimates by the United Nations agency and local and international human rights organizations indicate that 2 million Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes as a result of Israeli threats, and most of them have taken refuge in UNRWA-run schools and camps.

All residents of Gaza depend on foreign aid to survive in the absence of the ability to produce or import food, but humanitarian aid alone cannot meet people's basic needs.

Although the UN, international aid agencies, and non-governmental organizations have been able to provide limited humanitarian aid despite extremely difficult conditions, these amounts fall far short of what is needed to prevent the deadly combination of hunger, malnutrition, and disease, and lack of food, healthy water, medical care is widespread in the northern regions.

UNRWA has helped to draw a realistic picture of the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, given the difficulties caused by the closure of crossings and the multi-step inspection of trucks carrying humanitarian aid.

Having in mind that UNRWA has been the biggest aid provider in Gaza war, the Israelis find it posing an obstacle to implementing their plans to force the Palestinians out of the Strip. That is why since the beginning of war, the organization's employees did not survive the Israeli criminal actions.

Two weeks ago, UNRWA announced that over the past year of the Gaza war, 231 of its employees have been killed by Israel, a figure that has never been seen before. Israel even imprisoned a number of UNRWA employees on charges of collaborating with Hamas, and in the eyes of Netanyahu and his cabal, UNRWA is a terrorist organization that has made the occupied territories unsafe.

Additionally, the Israeli army has even destroyed UNRWA-affiliated schools, medical centers and camps. UNRWA announced last week that more than 70 percent of the schools of this organization across Gaza were bombed and destroyed or seriously damaged by the Israeli army— places that are forbidden to attack based on the laws of war, but the Israelis destroyed them while they have become temporary shelters for refugees in these difficult days.

Tel Aviv's aims behind banning UNRWA

The relations between UNRWA and Tel Aviv have long been strained, but they have grown worse since the beginning of the war. Israel has several times called for its dissolution and transfer of its duties to other UN organizations, but failed to meet this goal.

The hardline government of Netanyahu that insists on occupying northern Gaza and getting rid of the resistance groups in this area forever, is removing any obstacle that stands in the way of its belligerent policies.

UNRWA employees, who observe the crimes of the Israelis in Gaza and warn every day that the world must stop Israel's massacre machine, in the absence of foreign media are the best narrators of the genocide against Palestinians by the Israeli occupation, and therefore the Netanyahu government, in order to keep its crimes hidden, find UNRWA a big obstacle ahead of its project.

At present, the Israeli military is seeking implementation of a plan known as the "generals' plan" that eyes occupation of northern Gaza. About 400,000 Palestinians remain in UNRWA schools and camps in the north and show no signs of willingness to leave despite Israeli threats. Therefore, Netanyahu intends to put pressure on the Palestinians to leave the area as soon as possible by banning the activities of UNRWA and cutting off the only aid agency to the northern residents, as plan to build new settlements in the northern areas of Gaza is being pursued seriously by the cabinet hardliners, and the Palestinian residents and UNRWA are a serious obstacle to this dangerous plan.

Also, with the cessation of UNRWA's activities, the danger of severe famine is lurking for the Palestinians. In a situation where Gaza is facing a humanitarian disaster, the presence of UNRWA could mitigate the suffering of the Palestinians to some extent, but the Israelis do not accept the limited aid to the Palestinian people and want to block this artery.

The Israeli regime intends to tighten the noose and starve the Palestinians to force them out of the occupied territories and pave the way for an expansionist project. Tel Aviv thinks that UNRWA ban will accelerate this process.

Given the fact that over the past year of Gaza war the UN and its chief have lashed out at Tel Aviv for its crimes, the UNRWA ban is a kind of defiance of the UN, especially that the Israelis have shown that they tolerate no opposite voice in implementation of their occupational plans.

Through this ban, Israel has officially gone on the offensive against the international community, sending the message that the world cannot stop its killing machine, and the greater the pressure on Tel Aviv, the more frequent the crimes against the Palestinians.