Global outcry as Israel bans aid agency UNRWA

Israel parliament’s ban on the main UN aid agency in the war-devastated Gaza Strip sparked international outcry.

Muhammad Abu Attawi was a senior Hamas commander and a truck driver for UNRWA. Picture: Israel Defence Forces.

Israel parliament’s ban on the main UN aid agency in the war-devastated Gaza Strip sparked international outcry as the government said it was considering proposed talks with Hamas on a hostage release deal.

Despite objections from the US and warnings from the UN ­Security Council, Israeli MPs overwhelmingly passed the bill overnight on Monday banning the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, from working in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem.

The UN Relief and Works Agency has provided essential aid, schooling, healthcare and help across the Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees elsewhere for more than seven decades.

Knesset members passed the bill with 92 votes in favour and 10 against, after years of harsh Israeli criticism of UNRWA, which has only increased since the start of the war in Gaza following Hamas’s deadly October 7 attacks last year.

In January, Israel accused a dozen of UNRWA’s Gaza workers of involvement in the October 7 attack. A series of probes found some “neutrality related issues” at UNRWA, and determined that nine employees “may have been involved” in the attack, but found no evidence for Israel’s central ­allegations.

“There is a deep connection between the terrorist organisation (Hamas) and UNRWA and Israel cannot put up with it,” Yuli Edelstein, one of the Knesset members who sponsored the bill, said as he presented the proposal.

The vote came after the agency confirmed a senior Hamas commander involved in one of the most brutal incidents of the October 7 massacre had been a staff member since 2022.

🔴 #BREAKING The IDF confirms that the terrorist who commanded the attack that led to the abduction of Hersh Goldberg-Polin and other hostages was an @UNRWA employee.

Muhammad Abu Attawi was a Hamas Nukhba Force commander who led the killing and kidnapping of Israelis from a… pic.twitter.com/uFYKjlbht8

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) October 25, 2024

Late last week, the Israel ­Defence Forces and Shin Bet confirmed the death of Muhammad Abu Attawi in Gaza, and named him as a UNRWA staffer and commander of Hamas’s Nukbha force who led the killing and kidnapping of partygoers at the Nova music festival.

According to UNRWA, Attawi’s name was included in a letter the refugee agency received from Israel in July that included a list of 100 staff members who were also allegedly members of terrorist groups, including Hamas.

Palestinian militant group Hamas, locked in conflict with ­Israel in Gaza, called the bill an act of “Zionist aggression” towards Palestinians, while its ally Islamic Jihad described the ban as “an ­escalation in the genocide”.

Even several of Israel’s staunch Western allies voiced disquiet at the ban, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying Britain was “gravely concerned”.

Germany warned it would ­“effectively make UNRWA’s work in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem impossible … jeopardising vital humanitarian aid for millions of people”.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini called the ban part of “an ongoing campaign to discredit the agency” that “will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media that Israel was “ready” to continue providing aid to Gaza “in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security”.

The ban comes as fighting rages in Gaza and Lebanon, where a second full-scale war-front opened last month.

Mr Netanyahu’s office said on Monday that Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea had met US and Qatari mediators in Doha, where they agreed they should talk to Hamas about a deal to free Israelis seized in the October 7 ­attack by Palestinian militants.

“In the coming days, discussions will continue between the mediators and Hamas to assess the feasibility of talks and to further efforts to promote a deal,” Mr Netanyahu’s office said.

The statement came two days after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi proposed a two-day truce and limited hostage-prisoner exchange that he said could lead to a permanent ceasefire.

But Mr Netanyahu later said he had not received the Egyptian proposal. Asked about the possibility of a Gaza ceasefire, US President Joe Biden said: “We need a ceasefire. We should end this war. It should end, it should end, it should end.”

After the October 7 attack, the military launched a massive offensive in Gaza to root out Hamas.

Israel has killed the Islamist group’s top leadership, but the war has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and driven ­almost all Gazans from their homes, reducing much of the territory’s infrastructure to rubble.

During the October 7 attack, 251 hostages were seized, including soldiers and civilians, of whom 97 are still in Gaza.

AFP