Third round of Gaza -host releases begins; 110 Palestinian prisoners to be released

On By Littum

Israelis participate in a protest outside the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the nearest East (UNWRA) headquarters in Jerusalem on February 5.

An Israeli ban on the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) comes into force today as Israel warns that it will “cease all cooperation” with the AID organization.

“UNRWA has to stop her activities and leave all his facilities in Jerusalem,” Israeli ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told UN Security Council members on Tuesday.

At the end of October, the Israeli parliament approved two bills, one that prevented UNRWA from operations within Israel, and another prohibits Israeli authorities from any contact with UNRWA. The agency is a critical lifeline for millions of Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, including in Gaza and the Israeli occupied the West Bank.

The vote was quickly criticized by UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, who said it violated international law and was “the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize his role in providing help with human development and services to Palestine refugees . ”

The ban came after Israel accused some UNRWA employees of participating in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, when more than 1,200 people were killed. UNRWA has long maintained that Israel has not provided evidence against its former employees. The agency says it had regularly given Israel a full list of its employees and has accused Israel of detaining and torturing some of its employees and forcing them to make false confessions about ties to Hamas. A UN study found that nine of the agency’s employees “may have been involved in the attack on October 7 and no longer work there.

A certain context: The Agency, which began by helping around 750,000 Palestinian refugees in 1950, now earns about 5.9 million Everywhere in the Middle East, many of which live in refugee camps – now cities within cities – in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

In the Gaza Strip, ravaged by a devastating Israeli war for more than a year, UNRWA earns about 1.7 million Palestinian refugees. On the West Bank and East Jerusalem it helps with 871,500 refugees.