Israel says that UNRWA has 6 days to stop its operations in East Jerusalem

Israel informed the United Nations on Friday that its relief agency known as UNRWA represented a decisive lifestyle for a two million Palestinian during the crisis. 15 months of war In Gaza, there are six days before it to stop all operations in East Jerusalem.

“UNRWA is required to stop its operations in Jerusalem and evacuate all the buildings in the city, no later than January 30.” 2025.

This message was the first official notice from Israel to the United Nations about its plans to implement the legislation approved by the Israeli Parliament in October, which is prohibited from UNRWA, officially known as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, to work on Israeli territory. . This procedure also prevents Israeli officials from dealing with UNRWA officials and employees.

The move came after months of tensions between the Israeli government United Nations AgencyWhich provides food, shelter, health care, vocational training and education for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza occupied by Israel, especially in the wake of the attacks led by Hamas on October 7, 2023 on Israel, which led to the outbreak of the war. The Agency also assists the Palestinians who live in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, where the Palestinians who have been displaced since the founding of Israel have lived for decades.

Israel accused UNRWA of being so It was hacked by Hamas members. However, two investigations by the United Nations reached that less than 10 employees of approximately 13,000 were belonging to the Palestinian armed group, and they were separated.

Officials say 269 UNRWA staff were killed in Gaza – the largest loss of life among United Nations employees in any conflict.

Mr. Danone said in the letter that Israel will continue to cooperate with the United Nations and “any of its agencies that were not penetrated by terrorist organizations.”

In response to a request for comment, Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the United Nations, pointed to the previous statements of Mr. Guterres in which he strongly defended UNRWA as an indispensable and necessary act, especially in Gaza, where the Israeli bombing of Hamas’s eradication led to the displacement of most of the population and killing About 47,000 people, according to Gaza officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and fighters.

UNRWA spokeswoman also referred requests for comments to the office of Mr. Guterres, as the letter was addressed to him.

“Firstly, the United Nations entities – including the backbone of our humanitarian response, must be UNRWA – capable of performing its functions without obstacle,” Mr. Guterres said at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council earlier this week on the situation in Gaza.

UNRWA President Philip Lazarini also asked the council last week to intervene to prevent Israel from implementing the legislation that prohibits its agency. He said that such actions “will greatly weaken the international humanitarian response” in Gaza and “they are exacerbated in an irreparable way.” Actually catastrophic living conditions.“

Before sending the letter, Lazarini told reporters last Friday that his agency had not received any clear directives from Israel on how to implement the measures. He also said that UNRWA is expected to continue its work, although this is in light of the tremendous logistical challenges in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and that its work in Jerusalem will be at risk.

In the letter, Israel called on the UNRWA agency to evacuate two sites in the Maalout neighborhood of Dafna and Kafr Aqab in East Jerusalem, which international law considers part of the West Bank and under the occupation. Israel considers the entire Jerusalem part of Israel.

UNRWA was founded in 1949 to help the Palestinians who fled or expelled from their homes during the Arab -Israeli war in 1948.

The agency has widespread support among the United Nations member states, and these countries have urged Israel not to prohibit the agency’s work. After Israel accused Hamas of penetrating the Biden Administration Agency hanging Millions of annual financing for UNRWA and Congress in March The American financing of the organization for a year.

During his first presidential term, Donald J. Trump withdrew UNRWA’s funding in 2018, and is expected to continue to restrict financing.

Representative Elise Stefanick, whom Trump chose to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, criticized the relief agency and described it as “anti -Semitic” in the hearing she held this week, and said it supports “Israel’s written rights” in the West Bank.

This position contradicts the United Nations position that the West Bank is occupied Palestinian land.

Mr. Lazarini said In post on x On Friday, he said that the prevention of UNRWA from work may “sabotage” recently reached the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, “which again fails the hopes of people who have suffered indescribable suffering.”

He said that in the first three days of the armistice, UNRWA brought food to one million people in Gaza and distributed it to about 3,000 people in northern Gaza, where the United Nations and relief agencies warned that people were on the edge of the abyss. From starvation.

Mr. Lazarini said: “UNRWA work should continue in Gaza and all over the occupied Palestinian territories.”