Israel stated Monday it had formally notified the United Nations of its choice to sever ties with the company supporting Palestinian refugees — the United Nations Reduction and Works Company for Palestine Refugees after lawmakers voted to ban the organisation.
“On the instruction of International Minister Israel Katz, the Ministry of International Affairs notified the UN of the cancellation of the settlement between the State of Israel and UNRWA,” the international ministry stated in a press release.
“UNRWA, the organisation whose workers participated within the October 7 bloodbath and lots of of whose workers are Hamas operatives, is a part of the issue within the Gaza Strip and never a part of the answer,” Katz was quoted as saying.
Israel’s parliament final month authorised a proposal to close down UNRWA’s operations in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem, regardless of condemnation from the worldwide neighborhood, together with its ally — the USA.
The ban on the UN company — which has offered important assist and help throughout Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees elsewhere for greater than seven a long time — can be a blow to humanitarian work in Gaza if applied, in keeping with consultants.
However Katz dismissed the argument, saying solely part of assist was being delivered into Gaza by UNRWA.
“Even now, the overwhelming majority of humanitarian assist to Gaza is delivered via different organisations, and solely 13 per cent of it’s delivered via UNRWA.
“The State of Israel is dedicated to worldwide legislation and can proceed to facilitate the doorway of humanitarian assist into the Gaza Strip in a way that doesn’t hurt the safety of the residents of Israel,” Katz stated.
In January, Israel accused a dozen of UNRWA’s Gaza workers of involvement within the October 7, 2023 assault by Hamas, which sparked the deadliest struggle within the territory.
A collection of probes discovered some “neutrality-related points” at UNRWA, and decided that 9 workers “could have been concerned” within the October 7 assault, however discovered no proof for Israel’s central allegations.
The ban has additionally raised fears UNRWA workers within the occupied West Financial institution might probably face issues transferring from one place to a different, in addition to accessing East Jerusalem or Israel as a result of they might lose their capacity to coordinate with the Israeli authorities to cross checkpoints.
The identical fears apply to visas and permits delivered by Israeli authorities.
UNRWA and different humanitarian businesses have accused Israeli authorities of limiting assist flows into Gaza, the place virtually all of the territory’s 2.4 million individuals have been displaced not less than as soon as throughout the struggle.
AFP