IsraelUN Palestinian Relief and Works Agency continues work despite ban
SDA
31.1.2025 - 05:34
ARCHIVE - Trucks carrying humanitarian aid from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) enter the Gaza Strip at the Kerem Shalom crossing from Egypt, a few days after the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas came into force. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
Keystone
Following the entry into force of a work ban in Israel for the UN Palestinian Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the future provision of supplies to the suffering population in the destroyed Gaza Strip is in doubt. For the time being, however, the UN organization is continuing its work despite Israel's ban. UN Secretary-General António Guterres' spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said that aid in Gaza would continue. UNRWA clinics throughout the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem are also still open.
Keystone-SDA
31.01.2025, 05:34
31.01.2025, 05:35
SDA
According to Israel, UNRWA should have stopped work on Thursday. Israel accuses the UN Palestinian Relief and Works Agency that some of its employees were involved in Hamas terror activities. As a consequence, Israel's parliament had imposed a ban on work on Israeli territory. Another law prohibits Israeli authorities from having any contact with UNRWA. Because Israel controls all access to the occupied territories, it is feared that it could become difficult or even impossible for the aid organization to continue supplying the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The New York Times quoted Sam Rose, the UNRWA director responsible for operations in the sealed-off coastal strip, as saying that several weeks' worth of supplies were still stored in the Gaza Strip. Israel could also allow the aid organization to reload thousands of truckloads already in Israel, although this could technically violate the work ban, the newspaper quoted three unnamed Israeli officials as saying.
The biggest challenge for UNRWA will come in a few weeks when the aid supplies run out and the foreign aid workers have to be withdrawn, they said. Due to the work ban, it may be impossible to obtain permission to import additional aid supplies and to apply for visas for staff. The only access to Gaza by land is currently via Israel.
About two dozen international aid workers have already left for Jordan due to expiring visas, Dujarric said in New York. UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini recently warned on Platform X that the ban on work by Israel could "sabotage" the ceasefire currently in place in Gaza between Israel and the Islamist Hamas, without explaining this in more detail. Lazzarini also issued an urgent warning at the UN Security Council in New York: "At stake are the fate of millions of Palestinians, the ceasefire and the prospects of a political solution that will bring lasting peace and security."
Israel's government wants a replacement for UNRWA, but one does not yet exist. Other aid organizations rely heavily on UNRWA's distribution network, including its trucks, warehouses, staff and distribution points. UNRWA is "irreplaceable for the survival of civilians", said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office of Civilian Aid (OCHA).
The reconstruction of the Gaza Strip could take between ten and 15 years, according to estimates by the US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff. After almost 16 months of war between Israel and the Islamist Hamas, "almost nothing is left" of the infrastructure in the sealed-off coastal strip on the Mediterranean, Witkoff told the US news site "Axios". He had visited the Gaza Strip on Wednesday to get a picture of the war zone on the ground and from the air.
The demolition and removal of the rubble alone will take five years, said Witkoff, who worked as a real estate investor before his appointment as US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy. Assessing the potential impact of the many tunnels built by Hamas under Gaza on the construction of new foundations could take years more, he said. The underground tunnels reportedly stretch for hundreds of kilometers. They serve Hamas as retreat and storage areas.
He had not spoken to Trump about his idea of resettling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan while the area is being rebuilt, Witkoff said. According to what he saw during his visit, the coastal strip is "uninhabitable". Added to this are the many unexploded ordnance. It was dangerous to move around in Gaza. The two Arab states had rejected Trump's idea and declared that they would not participate in the resettlement of residents from Gaza.
Witkoff left Israel on Thursday, a few hours after Hamas released eight more Israeli hostages. In return, Israel released 110 Palestinian prisoners, including at least 30 convicted of murder. Some of the released prisoners were reportedly taken to the Gaza Strip. Several are to be taken abroad as part of the deal due to the seriousness of their crimes. Outraged by chaotic scenes during the hostage release in Chan Junis in southern Gaza, Israel's government had initially postponed the release of the prisoners.