Israel says that UNRWA has six days to stop operations in Jerusalem east

Israel told the United Nations on Friday that his help agency known as Unrwa, a fundamental lifeguard for two million Palestinians during the 15 months of war in Gaza, had six days to stop all operations in East Jerusalem.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said in a letter addressed to the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, that “the UNRWA must cease its operations in Jerusalem and evacuate all the premises in which it operates in the city, to Best on January 30 “. 2025 ”.

The letter was the first official notice of Israel to the UN on how it planned to enforce the legislation approved by the Israeli Parliament in October that prohibits the UNRWA, formally known as the United Nations Public Works and Socorro Agency for the United Nations for Palestine Refugees In the Near East, operate in Israeli territory. . The measure also prohibited Israeli officials from interacting with officials and employees of the UNRWA.

The measure occurred after months of tensions between the Israeli government and the UN Agency, which provides food, refuge, medical care, vocational training and education to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza occupied by Israel, especially after the war led by Hamas. October 7, 2023, attacks against Israel that triggered war. The agency also helps the Palestinians living in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, where the Palestinians displaced during the Israel Foundation have lived for decades.

Israel has accused the UNRWA of being infiltrated by members of Hamas. But two UN investigations found that less than 10 employees of a total of 13,000 were affiliated with the Palestinian armed group and were fired.

Two hundred and sixty -nine members of the UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza: the greatest loss of lives among UN employees in any conflict, officials say.

Danon said in the letter that Israel would continue to cooperate with the UN and “any of its agencies that have not been infiltrated by terrorist organizations.”

When a comment was asked, Farhan Haq, a UN spokesman, referred to previous statements of Guterres defending the work of UNRWA as irreplaceable and essential, particularly in Gaza, where Israeli bombings to eradicate Hamas have displaced the most of the population and have killed around 100 people. 47,000 people, according to Gaza officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

A UNRWA spokeswoman also sent the requests for comments to Mr. Guterres’s office, since the letter was addressed to him.

Guterres said at a UN Security Council meeting earlier this week on the situation in Gaza: “First, United Nations entities – including the backbone of our humanitarian response, UNRWA – must be able to perform their functions Without obstacles. “

The Chief of the UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, also requested last week to the Council that intervenes to prevent Israel from applying the legislation prohibited by his agency. He said that such actions “will greatly weaken the international humanitarian response” in Gaza and “will greatly worsen the living conditions already catastrophic.”

Before sending the letter, Lazzarini told journalists last Friday that his agency had not received any clear directive from Israel about how the measures would be implemented. He also said he expected UNRWA to continue his work, although with huge logistics challenges in the West Bank and Gaza, and that his work in Jerusalem would be compromised.

In the letter, Israel demanded that the UNRWA evacuate two sites in the neighborhoods of Maalot Dafna and Kfar Aqueb in East Jerusalem, that international law considers part of the West Bank and is under occupation. Israel considers that every Jerusalem is part of Israel.

The UNRWA was created in 1949 to help the Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948.

The agency has broad support between the UN Member States, and have urged Israel not to prohibit the agency’s work. After Israel accused Hamas of infiltrating the agency, the Biden administration suspended million in annual financing to UNRWA and Congress in March Prohibited American financing to the organization for a year..

During his first presidential mandate, Donald J. Trump withdrew financing to UNRWA in 2018 and is expected to continue restricting financing.

The representative chosen by Trump to be an ambassador of the United States before the UN, Elise Stefanik, criticized the aid agency as “anti -Semitic” at her audience in the Senate this week and said she supported Israel’s “biblical rights” on the West Bank.

That position disagrees with the UN position that the West Bank is occupied Palestinian territory.

Mr. Lazzarini said In an X post On Friday that preventing Unrwa from operating “could sabotage” the high provisional fire reached recently between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, “failing once again the hopes of people who have gone through indescribable suffering.”

He said that, in the first three days of the truce, the UNRWA brought food for one million people in Gaza and had already distributed them to some 3,000 people in northern Gaza, where the UN and the aid agencies had warned that the people were on the verge of abyss. of famine.

“UNRWA’s work must continue in Gaza + throughout the Palestinian territory,” said Lazzarini.