RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — New Israeli laws effectively banning Israeli activities in Israel will create a vacuum that will cost more lives and create more instability in Gaza and the West Bank, the head of the U.N. agency dealing with Palestinian refugees said Wednesday. he said.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), effectively rejects this, saying in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press (his first since the law was passed) that the law is “ultimately to the detriment of the Palestinians,” providing them with life-saving services, education and healthcare. They are a functioning provider.

UNRWA has been the main agency providing and distributing aid in the Gaza Strip, where nearly the entire population of approximately 2.3 million Palestinians has relied on UNRWA for survival during Israel’s nearly 13-month war with the militant group Hamas.

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are taking shelter in UNRWA-run schools. Other aid groups say the agency’s decades-old strong infrastructure across Gaza is irreplaceable. So far, Israel has not put forward any plans to provide food, medicine and other supplies to the people of Gaza in the absence of UNRWA.

Israel alleges that Hamas and other militants infiltrated UNRWA, using its facilities and receiving assistance; however, there is little evidence for these claims. The laws passed by parliament this week sever all ties with UNRWA and ban UNRWA’s activities in Israel.

Because the agency’s operations in Gaza and the West Bank must go through Israeli authorities, the law also threatens to shut down its activities there. The laws are expected to come into force within three months.

Speaking to the AP in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Lazzarini said that if Israel’s decision was implemented, “it would be a complete disaster, it would be like throwing the baby out with the water.” Middle East conflict.

“This will create a vacuum. This will also fuel further instability in the West Bank and Gaza,” he said. “If UNRWA ends its activities within three months, it will also mean that more people will die in Gaza.”

He said the agency is “looking for creative ways to continue our operation.” He called for support from the UN General Assembly and donors to continue providing services and called on Israel to cancel the decision or extend the three-month grace period. He said Israel had not officially contacted the agency after the laws were passed.

For decades, UNRWA has operated a network of schools, medical facilities and other services in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in neighboring Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. In Gaza in particular, it plays an important role in sustaining social services and the economy as the region’s single largest employer and the source of education and healthcare for a large portion of the population.

He said the laws threatened to shut down all these operations, which would impact the education and welfare of hundreds of thousands of children well into the future.

“Today, 1 in every 2 people in Gaza is under the age of 18, among them 650,000 girls and boys live under rubble and experience deep trauma at primary and secondary school age,” he said. “Getting rid of UNRWA is also a way of telling these kids that you have no future. We are just sacrificing your education. Education is the one thing that has never been taken away from Palestinians.”

UNRWA was established to assist the approximately 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s founding. It now provides support to refugees and their descendants, whose number has reached 6 million in the region.

Lazzarini said the Israeli laws were “the result of years of attacks against the agency.” “The goal is to remove Palestinians from refugee status,” he said.

International law gives Palestinian refugees and their descendants the right to return to their homes. Israel refused to allow their return, saying it would end the Jewish majority in the country. Israel says refugees should be accepted by host countries, and officials often argue that UNRWA’s services keep Palestinians’ hopes of return alive.

In a letter to the UN, Lazzarini said that Israeli laws and the campaign against the organization “will not end the refugee status of Palestinians, which exists independently of UNRWA services, but will seriously harm their lives and futures.”

Israel alleges, without providing evidence, that hundreds of Palestinian militants worked for UNRWA and that more than a dozen employees participated in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the latest war.

The UN dismissed nine staff after internal investigations revealed they may have participated in the attack. UNRWA has approximately 30,000 personnel in the region, mostly Palestinians, including 13,000 in Gaza. Israel also says Hamas fighters operate at UNRWA schools and other facilities in Gaza, hitting many of them with airstrikes.

UNRWA denies knowingly aiding armed groups and says it has acted quickly to purge suspected militants from its ranks.

Lazzarini said Israel did not respond to UNRWA’s questions about other allegations, including allegations that UNRWA’s facilities were used by militant groups. He said the agency was unable to verify the allegations because the fighting was ongoing and called for independent action. investigation.

At least 237 UNRWA personnel were killed in the war in Gaza; this is a figure not seen among UN personnel in any other conflict. More than 200 UNRWA facilities were damaged or destroyed; More than 560 people sheltered here lost their lives.

Lazzarini spoke on the sidelines of a conference of the Global Alliance for a Two-State Solution, a Saudi government initiative attended by foreign ministers from Arab, Muslim, African and European countries.

“If we want to be successful in any future political transition, we need an organization like UNRWA that deals with the education and basic health care of Palestinian refugees until there is a proper functioning state or administration that can do this,” he said.