Israel’s parliament is considering cutting ties with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, a move that could disrupt the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. This is the culmination of a long-running campaign against the organization, which Israel claims has been infiltrated by Hamas. But supporters say Israel’s real goal is to put the issue of Palestinian refugees aside.

The organization known as UNRWA is the main provider and distributor of aid in Gaza, providing education, healthcare and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees in the region, including the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“If the law is passed and implemented, it would be a disaster,” said Juliette Touma, the agency’s communications director. “UNRWA is the largest humanitarian agency in Gaza… Who can do its job?”

Israel accuses the agency of turning a blind eye to personnel it says belong to Hamas, diverting aid and using UNRWA facilities for military purposes. Israel says about a dozen of its 13,000 personnel in Gaza participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. The agency denies knowingly aiding armed groups and says it has moved quickly to eliminate suspected militants among its personnel.

The bill calls for the major closure of UNRWA in Palestinian territories

The two bills, which have wide support in Israel, would sever Israel’s ties with UNRWA and eliminate the legal immunity long enjoyed by UNRWA’s staff in Israel. The agency would be effectively prohibited from operating in Israel and Palestinian territory, as Israel controls access to both Gaza and the West Bank. This could force the agency to move its headquarters from Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.

The bills will enter into force 60 to 90 days after the Israeli Foreign Ministry notifies the UN, according to a spokesman for parliamentarian Dan Illouz, one of the co-sponsors.

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Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general, warned earlier this month that if the law was passed, humanitarian operations in Gaza could be “disintegrated” and the provision of food, shelter and healthcare could be disrupted as winter approaches.

Gaza’s population of approximately 2.3 million depends almost entirely on aid to survive. Approximately 90 percent of the population was displaced. Hundreds of thousands of people live in tent camps and shelters converted into schools, many managed by UNRWA. Experts say hunger is widespread. More than 43,000 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s operation in Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 attack, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants.

Israel is reportedly considering taking over or subcontracting aid distribution itself, but has yet to reveal any concrete plans. Such an effort would likely require large numbers of troops and other resources at a time when Israel is at war on two fronts in Gaza and Lebanon.

Other U.N. agencies and aid groups say there is no replacement for UNRWA, which also runs 96 schools, three vocational training centers and 43 health centers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, home to about 47,000 students.

A decades-long mission rooted in the bitter history of conflict

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East was established to assist the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s founding.

UNRWA supporters say Israel hopes to eliminate the Palestinian refugee problem by disbanding the agency. Israel says refugees should be resettled permanently in other countries, and the agency’s Israeli opponents argue that ending UNRWA services would force them to do so.

Palestinians say the refugees and their descendants, who now number about 6 million, should be allowed to exercise their right under international law to return home. Israel rejects the offer, saying the result would be a majority of Palestinians within its borders.

The issue was one of the most thorny issues in the peace process, which came to a halt in 2009.

UNRWA runs schools, health clinics, infrastructure projects and aid programs in refugee camps that have turned into urban neighborhoods in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

A long-standing dispute over UNRWA’s neutrality

Israel says, without providing any evidence, that hundreds of Palestinian militants work for UNRWA and that more than a dozen employees were involved in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

UNRWA immediately dismissed employees accused of taking part in the October 7 attack, in which Hamas-led militants killed nearly 1,200 people and kidnapped around 250 others.

An independent investigation earlier this year found that UNRWA had “robust” mechanisms to guarantee its impartiality, but staff who publicly expressed their political views and UNRWA-run schools were banned, including textbooks with “problematic content”. He pointed out gaps in implementation.

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UNRWA said it thoroughly investigates any allegations of wrongdoing and holds its staff accountable, and has submitted a list of all its personnel to Israel and host countries. It is stated that Israel has largely ignored requests to provide evidence regarding its allegations against the employees.

Israel has repeatedly struck places where UN schools have become shelters, claiming that Hamas fighters operate there. It also notes that tunnels operating near or under UNRWA facilities have been uncovered.

UNRWA has long been the single largest employer in Gaza, where the population has been impoverished due to the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt for years. Hamas has governed the region since 2007 and, in addition to its armed wing, also conducts civilian political operations.

The militant wings of Hamas and other groups are highly secretive; Its members are virtually unknown outside intelligence agencies. This complicates efforts by civilian organizations to vet employees.

Fatah Sharif, a UNRWA teacher in southern Lebanon, was killed along with her family in an Israeli airstrike last month. It was later revealed that he was a high-ranking Hamas commander and had kept it a secret.

UNRWA chief Lazzarini said Sharif was suspended without pay in March after learning that he was a member of Hamas’s political party, and an investigation was launched. He said he did not know Sharif was a militant commander until his death.

UNRWA has strong international support

Following allegations about the October 7 attack, many Western countries suspended funding to UNRWA. Everyone except its biggest donor, the United States, has restored it.

The Biden administration recently warned Israel that it could lose some of the crucial American military aid it has relied on throughout the war if it does not allow more aid to Gaza.

In the letter sent by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to their Israeli counterparts, it was stated that they shared Israel’s concerns about “serious allegations” that UNRWA employees were involved in the October 7 attack and that “Hamas misused UNRWA facilities.”

But he said enacting the bill’s restrictions would “devastate the humanitarian response in Gaza at this critical moment … which could have consequences for relevant U.S. laws and policies.”

In a joint statement made last week by Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the UK, “serious concerns” were expressed about the law. It said the agency provides “essential and life-saving humanitarian assistance” and that without that assistance its provision would be “severely hampered, if not impossible.”