Israel is cutting all ties with UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, forcing the agency to cease all operations within the country and East Jerusalem. The agency has provided critical aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. DW's Tania Krämer reports.
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00:00This UNRWAN health clinic in central Gaza is always busy.
00:07The UN agency has long been the primary health care provider for Palestinian refugees registered
00:13with the agency.
00:14Now with Gaza's health system devastated by the war, it's more needed than ever.
00:21I'm at the clinic because I am diabetic and four months pregnant.
00:26Thank God I discovered my illness in the first month of pregnancy and the agency is
00:29here to help and support us.
00:32UNRWA was established in 1949 with a temporary mandate to care for Palestinians who were
00:38driven from their homes during and after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
00:44In the absence of a state over 75 years later, it still provides health care, education and
00:50other government-like services to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees and their
00:56descendants across the occupied Palestinian territories.
01:02The new legislation will stop it operating in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem.
01:09It also bans Israeli authorities from working with UNRWA, effectively stopping its work
01:14in Gaza and the West Bank.
01:18Over the weekend, Israel's government ordered UNRWA to leave its headquarters in East Jerusalem
01:23by 30th of January.
01:27DW spoke to UNRWA's West Bank director at the compound before that order.
01:33By seeking to ban UNRWA's activities, Israel does not live up to its responsibilities as
01:40a member state, its obligations under the UN Charter, under international norms to support
01:46the activity of a UN agency as a member state.
01:51The legislation was passed following allegations that UNRWA staffers were involved in the terror
01:56attacks of October 7 and allowed Hamas to hide in their centers, a claim repeated by
02:02Israel's deputy foreign minister.
02:06UNRWA is part of a problem, it's not part of the solution.
02:10They actually set all their military bases, rocket launchers, weapons bunkers.
02:19UNRWA knew about it.
02:21UNRWA turned a blind eye.
02:23The workers participated in the 7th of October massacre.
02:30UNRWA has consistently condemned the October 7 attack and investigated the accusations
02:35of involvement.
02:37It found that nine employees may have been involved and fired them.
02:42In total, the agency employs 13,000 people in Gaza.
02:48We believe there is a replacement for them.
02:52We know there can be a replacement for UNRWA where the civilian power of those governmental
02:59services are not in the hands of Hamas.
03:02And until the United Nations cleans up this organization from Hamas, giving them civilian
03:07power through this organization, we will not cooperate with this.
03:13But replacing UNRWA isn't as simple as that, officials say.
03:19The difference between the work of UNRWA and that of other UN partner agencies is that
03:24UNRWA is the only agency mandated to provide these government-like services, public services.
03:30No other agency can do that, it's not within their mandate, nor do they have the capacity
03:36to take over this role on the ground.
03:40In Gaza, in ruins after 15 months of war, those who depend on UNRWA's services fear
03:47what's to come.
03:52UNRWA is the first supporter for the people in Palestine and Gaza.
03:55If it's not here, how will we live without their services?
03:59We will not be able to live.
04:03If UNRWA is stopped from working in its current form, observers say international law requires
04:09Israel to fill the void.
04:10But for the moment, it's unclear how this might be done.