International staff working for the UN’s main agency serving Palestinians have been forced to leave Israel, after its ban on the agency came into effect.
As the UN flag was still flying above the headquarters building in Jerusalem, Palestinian staff were not present at the site over security concerns amid a planned “celebration” by Israeli rightwing groups outside the compound.
While Unrwa said on Thursday that it would continue working in Gaza and the West Bank for as long as possible, it added it had received no communications from Israel on how the ban would be implemented – most crucially over the delivery of aid to Gaza.
The Israeli ban went ahead on Thursday after the country’s supreme court rejected a petition by Palestinian human rights group Adalah contesting the new law prohibiting Unrwa.
The court did note that the legislation “prohibits Unrwa activity only on the sovereign territory of the state of Israel”, but did not prohibit such activity in Gaza and the West Bank.
The ban does apply, however, to Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, where Unrwa has a field headquarters for its operations in the West Bank.
About 25 international staff left Israel on Wednesday after Israel had refused to issue visas or extend existing ones. International staff make up about 2% of the agency’s workforce.
“The headquarters is still there, and flag is still up,” said Juliette Touma, an Unrwa spokesperson.
“It’s a UN compound which means it must be protected. We don’t have plans to close our operations,” she said, adding that their work in the West Bank and Gaza was continuing.
“But we are in the dark. We have not received any instructions from Israel how the ban will be enforced beyond being told to vacate.”
The most serious feared impact is on the delivery of aid to Gaza, where Unrwa is the largest agency delivering aid and whose trucks cross into Gaza from Israel requiring coordination with the Israeli authorities.
“If [the ban means] no contact at an operational level then the fate of the ceasefire is in serious jeopardy because we are the most serious player and biggest deliverer of aid,” said Touma.
Officially Unrwa is now banned from operating on Israeli soil and contact between it and Israeli officials is also forbidden, although it is unclear what this might mean in practical terms.
Set up in 1949 under a mandate from the UN general assembly, the agency has provided support for Palestinian refugees around the Middle East for over 70 years, but has long faced attacks from Israeli officials.
Its offices and staff in Israel play a major role in the provision of healthcare and education to Palestinians, including those living in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by the war between Israel and Hamas.
The agency’s chief, Philippe Lazzarini, said Unrwa’s capacity to distribute aid “far exceeds that of any other entity” describing Israel’s actions as a “relentless assault … harming the lives and future of Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territory”.
Israel has long campaigned against Unrwa claiming its existence has prolonged the conflict between Israeli and Palestinians.
The hostility intensified after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, with accusations that some Unrwa employees participated in the assault.
Despite repeated claims by Israel that Unrwa had been infiltrated by Hamas on a large scale, a series of investigations, including one led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” at Unrwa, but stressed Israel had not provided evidence for its headline allegation.
