Ban on UNRWA ‘must be lifted’, agency spokesperson says
Juliette Touma, the director of communications at UNRWA, has called for Israel’s ban on the agency to be lifted immediately.
The humanitarian organisation’s international staff have been unable to deliver support to the occupied West Bank since January when the Knesset passed two laws to end UNRWA’s operations.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Touma said: “International staff of the agency can no longer get visas from Israel to work in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
“We rely on the front-line Palestinian local workers – 17,000 of them have been holding the fort and delivering services, including education, in East Jerusalem,” she added.
Touma stressed the dangers faced by UNRWA’s staff, saying: “Humanitarian workers have become a target in this war. We see this not only at UNRWA . We are seeing nearly 300 of our colleagues have been killed, many of them during the line of duty while serving their communities.”
Despite the escalating challenges, Touma said UNRWA’s local staff continue to provide essential services to Palestinian communities, even as international staff are increasingly blocked from working on the ground.
An UNRWA-run school destroyed in Israeli strikes lies in ruins in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip
UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem threatened with closure, Lazzarini says
Several UNRWA facilities, including schools in occupied East Jerusalem, are under threat of closure by Israeli authorities, the UN agency’s Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has warned.
“Some 800 children are likely to miss out on finishing the school year if their schools are forced closed,” he said in a post on X.
Lazzarini welcomed the ICJ hearing, saying: “UNRWA and other agencies are present in the occupied Palestinian territory to address overwhelming needs. The Agency’s services must continue unobstructed until there is a just and lasting solution to the plight of Palestine refugees.”
He also criticised Israeli laws passed in January that restrict coordination with UNRWA officials, warning they “hamper the delivery of assistance to people in need”.
