蜜桃交友

By Kielce Gussie

In October 2024, one year after the conflict between Hamas and Israel began, the Israeli Parliament – the Knesset – passed two bills directly impacting access to humanitarian aid for Palestinian refugees.

The first banned the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, from continuing to provide humanitarian assistance within Israel’s borders, while the second makes any contact between Israeli officials and UNRWA illegal.

Palestinian refugees hold metal pots and pans to receive food

In effect as of January 30, 2025, UNRWA spokesperson, Jonathan Fowler, tells Pope' Marie Duhamel how this new law forced agency employees to leave “the offices in East Jerusalem from where operations for the West Bank and East Jerusalem were run” as their visas “were curtailed.” He describes how he and his colleagues had to redeploy to Jordan.

No clear-cut direction

Fowler argues that the meaning of the new law and its implementation are unclear. The exact meaning of “no contact” has not been defined. Does that mean “crossing a checkpoint? Is contact going through a checkpoint to your place of work? Is contact importing medicine? All of these things which remain under control of the Israeli authorities. Can we do this?”

Yet, this uncertainty is certainly not new for UNRWA. Since October 7, 2023, Fowler describes being “in a situation of immense uncertainty” as laws made by the Israeli authorities have made their work “much more complicated.”

For the time being, UNRWA clinics and schools are still in operation in East Jerusalem. Despite the uncertainty and challenges, Fowler stresses they will not give up. “We are committed to staying and delivering. Whatever that means, however we can do it,” he states.

A new way of being

In 1949, one year after the creation of the state of Israel, UNRWA was founded to care for the 750,000 Palestinian refugees who were uprooted. 76 years later, their presence in the Middle East has now drastically changed.

UNRWA aid trucks travel route in Rafah during ceasefire between Israel and Hamas

Fowler points out that the area that will be most affected is Gaza. Before the war, 13,000 people worked with UNRWA in Gaza, and now, as most of the staff has been displaced, there are only 5,000 remaining. If the agency is restricted from providing aid, Fowler says, “we either risk a rapid collapse or slow collapse of the operation overall.”

UNRWA is responsible for 60% of aid coming in and out of Gaza. During the first three days of the ceasefire agreement, Fowler states UNRWA was able to increase its assistance and provide food for one million people. If this new law is fully implemented and UNRWA is completely banned, “the backbone of the humanitarian operation” will be removed and “other parts of the UN, NGOs…will not function.”