Israel is trying to undo UNRWA, but few options remain for Gaza aid
TEL AVIV
With new allegations that more UNRWA employees participated in the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack, the Israeli government is trying to delegitimize and work around the principal U.N. agency for Palestinian aid, even as officials acknowledge it’s the main distributor of emergency supplies for besieged Gazans facing mass starvation.
In the past week, the
U.N. Relief and Works Agency sent about 80 truckloads of aid into Gaza, but it was in collaboration with the World Food Program, one of the organizations Israel has suggested could replace it. That’s about half the volume UNRWA was delivering to the enclave last month, spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai said.
A month’s worth of flour, rice, chickpeas and cooking oil from Turkey has been stuck for weeks at Israel’s Ashdod port, where authorities have been instructed not to release it, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said Feb. 9. The processing fees for unloading the containers had been “impacted,” he said, because an Israeli bank froze the agency’s account.
Aid organizations say Gaza, with its food supplies sharply limited and its hospital system battered by three months of war, is approaching famine. The majority of its 2.2 million residents do not have access to sufficient food or water.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday that 30 additional UNRWA employees participated in the Hamas attack, which Israeli authorities say killed about 1,200 people in communities near Gaza and took more than 253 more hostage. That was in addition to the 12 employees Israel accused last month.
“UNRWA has lost legitimacy and can no longer function as a U.N. body,” Gallant told reporters Friday. “I have instructed the defense establishment to begin transferring responsibilities related to the delivery of aid to additional organizations.”
Gallant said 12 percent of UNRWA’s staff of 13,000 are affiliated with Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
UNRWA has denied knowledge of its employees’ alleged involvement in the Oct. 7 assault.
“The government of Israel has indicated that even with its highly professional intelligence services and security forces, the planning of the attack went undetected by them, implying that all involved, including people who allegedly work for UNRWA, participated illicitly in ways that UNRWA also would have been unable to detect,” spokesman Jonathan Fowlersaid.
The allegations have led the United States, UNRWA’s largest supporter, and 15 other governments to suspend funding for the agency pending the findings of multiple investigations. The Biden administration says it’s exploring other ways to deliver aid to Gaza.
Israel responded to the Oct. 7 assault by launching a military campaign that authorities say is aimed at eradicating Hamas. The fighting has killed more than 28,900 people in Gaza, the Health Ministry there says, and forced more than 80 percent of the survivors from their homes. The dead include at least 258 UNRWA workers, the agency says.
As the IDF has expanded its campaign, it says it has uncovered new details of UNRWA collaboration with Hamas.
The army released video this month of what it said was a subterranean Hamas server complex 65 feet beneath UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters.On Tuesday, the army released video of what it said was the hideout of Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar under Khan Younis with UNRWA packages among the stash.
Lazzarini has denied that the group knew about “all the situations where U.N. premises have been blatantly disrespected.” He has ordered an internal investigation.
Israel is proceeding cautiously. Officials familiar with the strategy say the country’s defense establishment is reluctant to shut the group down immediately, given its role providing food and shelter to Gazans.
“In the short term, the idea is to find alternate providers that are not connected to Hamas,” said an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe confidential government discussions. “In the long term, the idea is that UNRWA will not be part of the ‘day after’ in Gaza.”
“Israel has long believed that UNRWA is in bed with Hamas, but what has changed is that the red lines crossed are clear for the international community, too,” said another Israeli familiar with the discussions. “No taxpayers abroad are going to want to support that.”
In Washington, the Biden administration continues to back UNRWA’s work but believes it’s unlikely to find support for further funding any time soon. With congressional Republicans firmly opposed and Democrats divided, few see UNRWA funding as an issue worth burning political capital on in an election year.
A Senate-approved version of the supplemental bill to fund aid to Ukraine, Israel and other allies contained a passage barring funding for the agency. It received significant bipartisan support.
“As a general principle, we support the work that UNRWA does,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters last week. “We support delivering humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people in Gaza. The United States has been the largest funder of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians, and we expect to continue funding humanitarian assistance to Palestinians.”
But the administration is exploring other ways to fund some of the work that UNRWA has done in Gaza and elsewhere, including possibly redirecting money to the World Food Program.
There’s also the potential for a budgetary workaround, Miller said. U.S. allies could increase their own funding for UNRWA with money diverted from other programs, which Washington could then backfill.