The Israeli government ban on UNRWA over national security concerns and links to terrorism began Jan. 30. UNRWA has called the move by Jerusalem as "disastrous."
U.N. officials vowed Thursday that the agency would continue to deliver services in the occupied Palestinian territories for as long as possible.
Millions of Palestinians rely on the UN agency, not only in Gaza but also across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. | ITV National News
Iman Helles, a displaced mother sheltering in a facility run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, fears that she will now be “thrown out to the streets” with her three children.
Bill Deere, director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), discussed with ABC News on Wednesday relief efforts in Gaza and
In the Shuafat refugee camp, a hardscrabble district in east Jerusalem surrounded by a hulking concrete wall, intense security checks make venturing out exasperating.
On Thursday, laws passed by Israel in October come into effect banning the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA, from Israeli territory and prohibiting Israeli officials from any contact with the agency.
Israel demands UNRWA halt operations in Jerusalem by January 30, citing Hamas ties and security risks. The move follows Knesset legislation severing ties with the agency.
The directive came in a letter to the U.N., after the Israeli Parliament banned the relief agency that has aided Palestinian refugees for decades.
Israel decided to ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees following accusations some of its staff belong to Hamas.
The headquarters of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, was deserted on Wednesday as staff left before a pair of Israeli laws came into effect Thursday banning the organisation from operating on Israeli territory and prohibiting Israeli officials from any contact with the agency.
Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem were set to lose education, healthcare and other services provided by U.N. agency UNRWA as an Israeli ban on the organisation takes effect on Thursday.