GENEVA: The United Nations warned on Tuesday that recent actions by Israel against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees risked depriving millions of people of basic services such as education and healthcare.
Israel's parliament passed new legislation on Monday formally stripping the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) of diplomatic immunity and barring Israeli companies from providing water or electricity to the agency's institutions.
According to UNRWA, the legislation also grants the Israeli government the authority to expropriate the agency's properties in East Jerusalem, including its headquarters and main vocational training centre.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini condemned the legislation as "outrageous", decrying it on social media as "part of an ongoing, systematic campaign to discredit UNRWA and thereby obstruct the core role that the agency plays providing human-development assistance and services to Palestine refugees".
Filippo Grandi, the outgoing head of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and a former UNRWA chief, also criticised the move as "very unfortunate".
In an interview with AFP, he highlighted that UNRWA, unlike other UN agencies, provides basic public services such as education and healthcare to the millions of registered Palestinian refugees it serves across Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
"If you deprive those people of those services... then you had better find a substitute," he said, warning: "I think it would be very difficult."
"At the moment, there is a great risk that millions of people will be deprived of basic services if UNRWA is further deprived of space to work, and resources to work."
Israel has been ratcheting up pressure on UNRWA over the past two years.
It has accused the agency of providing cover for Hamas fighters, claiming that some UNRWA employees took part in the militant group's October 7, 2023 assault on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.
A series of UN-linked internal and external investigations found some "neutrality-related issues" at UNRWA, but stressed Israel had not provided conclusive evidence for its headline allegation.
Grandi criticised the torrent of accusations that have swirled around the agency.
"UNRWA is a very indispensable organisation in the Middle East," he said.
"Contrary to much of the frankly baseless rhetoric that we have heard in the past couple of years, UNRWA is a force for peace and stability," he added.
"In a region in which you need every bit of stability and efforts towards peace, it would be really irresponsible to let such an important organisation decline further."
Britain, Canada, France, and others said in a joint statement on Tuesday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza has worsened again and is of serious concern, and called on Israel to take urgent action.
The statement, published online by the British Foreign Office, said Israel should allow non-governmental organisations to work in Israel in a sustained and predictable way, and ensure the UN could continue its work in the Palestinian enclave.
"(We) express serious concerns about the renewed deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza which remains catastrophic," read the statement from the foreign ministers of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
It also said Israel should lift what it called "unreasonable restrictions" on certain imports, including medical and shelter equipment, and open border crossings to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. — Agencies
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
