Israel withdraws from agreement with UN agency for Palestinian refugees

Israel notified the United Nations on Monday that it was withdrawing from the 1967 agreement with UNRWA, the main aid agency for Palestinian refugees, following passage of two laws in the country’s parliament, the Knesset, severely limiting the U.N. agency's operations in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The notification was delivered in a letter to U.N. General Assembly President Philémon Yang and Secretary-General António Guterres.

The letter said Israel stands ready to work with international partners, including other U.N. agencies, to ensure delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Israel Foreign Minister Israel Katz criticized the U.N. as failing to address allegations that UNRWA staff in the Gaza Strip participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and said other international aid agencies are sufficient to substitute UNRWA’s work.

“There are other international aid agencies that are not tainted by terrorist activity,” Katz wrote in Hebrew on the social platform X.

Israel’s law limiting UNRWA’s activity in Israel is expected to come into effect early next year.

The U.N. in August completed an investigation into Israeli allegations of terrorist activity among 19 UNRWA staff, saying evidence on at least nine employees indicated participation in the attacks but evidence in nine other cases was insufficient, and no evidence was available in one case.

UNRWA has further said it raised protest with Hamas when it discovered that munitions have been stored in its facilities and that it has taken steps to dismantle tunnels discovered in or near its facilities, publicizes this information and raises protest with Hamas. Israel calls these steps insufficient.

The U.S. halted its funding for UNRWA in the wake of Israel’s allegations that staff with the organization had participated in the Oct. 7 attack.

“UNRWA, of course, plays a critical role in providing services to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and throughout the broader — the wider region. And particularly in Gaza, they play a role right now that, at least today, cannot be filled by anyone else,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said last week.

“They are a key partner in delivering food, water, and other humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza that wouldn’t have anyone else to get it from if UNRWA were to go away.”

Miller further said there could be consequences with U.S. law; the Biden administration has warned Israel that the hindering of delivery of humanitarian assistance could impact the delivery of U.S. military assistance to the country.

"They certainly have a legal obligation to allow humanitarian assistance in and not to erect roadblocks to humanitarian assistance to people in Gaza," Miller said.

“And we have made that clear since the outset of this conflict, and a great number of our engagements with the government of Israel have been around ensuring that they do let humanitarian assistance in, and that they do ensure that humanitarian assistance gets to the people that need it. And that is precisely one of our major concerns about this legislation.”