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The main UN agency serving Palestinians in the occupied territories, including Gaza, looks likely to be shut down on Thursday as Israel defied widespread international support for the agency in a move Unrwa predicted would “sabotage Gaza’s recovery and political transition”.
Unrwa’s banning looks certain, as Israel’s high court of justice refused a last-minute request to intervene to suspend the law forbidding the agency from operating in Israel.
Palestinians in the war-devastated Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are expected to be hardest hit by the ban, including about 30,000 Unrwa workers.
The imminent closure comes as Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, emphatically rejected suggestions from Donald Trump that Palestinians from Gaza should be “cleaned out” to Egypt and Jordan, describing the idea as an “act of injustice”.
Israel, with the backing of the Trump administration, will cut ties with Unrwa from Thursday, amid condemnation from aid groups as well as US allies, including the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, who demanded that it retract its order and said Unrwa was “irreplaceable”.
Unrwa has brought in about 60% of the food aid that has reached Gaza since the war began with Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.
Its closure comes as three Israelis held by Hamas in Gaza are due to be handed over in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails as part of the ceasefire. The three – a soldier, Agam Berger, and two Israeli civilian hostages, Arbel Yehoud and Gadi Moses – are due to be handed over on Thursday.
Moses, 80, will be the first male civilian hostage to be released under the current ceasefire deal.
There was speculation that five Thai citizens held by Hamas could also be released on Thursday.
The ceasefire exchanges were continuing as Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, was in Israel to discuss progress towards the second phase of the truce before a planned meeting between the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the US president next week in Washington. Witkoff also briefly visited the so-called Netzarim Corridor in Gaza.
According to Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, Witkoff was accompanied by Israel Defense Forces, and visited the corridor with the strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer.
A law banning the activities of Unrwa will come into force on Thursday amid warnings that the agency’s closure will affect large numbers of Palestinians relying on its services and aid, including in Gaza.
The enforcement of the ban, which would result in the closure of the agency’s headquarters in East Jerusalem, follows a notification to the UN from the Israeli ambassador, Danny Danon, this week. “Within 48 hours, the State of Israel will cease its cooperation with Unrwa,” Danon said. “Unrwa must cease its activities and evacuate all its facilities in Jerusalem.”
Israel’s insistence that it would close Unrwa came as a spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, said the decision was a “provocation” that would fuel tensions in the region owing to its impact on Palestinian refugees.
Unrwa was founded in 1949 to support hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees displaced by the conflict that resulted in Israel’s foundation, and has continued to support refugees over the intervening decades.
It has been the target of Israeli criticism for years, not least the argument by Israeli officials that its existence perpetuates the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
More recently, Israel claimed that a handful of the agency’s Palestinian staff had participated in Hamas’s 7 October attack.
On Wednesday, hours before the planned banning of Unrwa, Israeli officials returned to the accusations claiming the agency was full of Hamas operatives. “Unrwa equals Hamas,” said David Mencer, a government spokesperson, a claim unsupported by evidence provided by Israel. “Israel has made public irrefutable evidence Unrwa is riddled with Hamas operatives.”
A series of investigations, including one led by the French former foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality related issues” at Unrwa – but emphasised Israel had not provided evidence for its headline allegation.
In an address to the UN security council this week, the head of Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini, refuted the allegation and warned of the damage of closing the agency.
“Unrwa is the largest UN presence in Gaza, with 13,000 personnel and 300 premises. The agency is critical for supporting a shattered population and the ceasefire. And yet, in two days, our operations in the occupied Palestinian territory will be crippled, as legislation passed by the Israeli Knesset takes effect.
“At stake is the fate of millions of Palestinians, the ceasefire, and the prospects for a political solution that brings lasting peace and security.
“The [Israeli] political attacks on the agency are motivated by the desire to strip Palestinians of their refugee status, thereby unilaterally changing the long-established parameters for a political solution. The objective is to deny Palestine refugees the right to self-determination and erase their history and identity,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian president’s remarks on Trump’s comment were the strongest pushback so far from Egypt or Jordan. Trump said on Saturday that Egypt and Jordan should take in Palestinians from Gaza, which he called a “demolition site” after 15 months of Israeli bombardment that made most of its 2.3 million people homeless.
Sisi, speaking at a press conference with the visiting Kenyan president, William Ruto, said Egypt would work with Trump to reach peace between Israel and Palestinians based on a two-state solution.
“Regarding what is being said about the displacement of Palestinians, it can never be tolerated or allowed because of its impact on Egyptian national security,” Sisi said. “The deportation or displacement of the Palestinian people is an injustice in which we cannot participate.”
