Gazans depend on us for ‘sheer survival’ insists UNRWA

This article is published in association with United Nations.

The largest UN agency in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, UNRWA, said on Friday that its staff are still providing aid to the people of Gaza and the West Bank including East Jerusalem who depend on them “for their sheer survival”, a day after the Israeli parliament ban on its activities entered into force.

The development came as more than 462,000 people are estimated to have crossed from south Gaza to the north since the opening of the Salah ad Din and Al Rashid roads on Monday.

The UN and humanitarian partners are assisting those on the move by providing water, high-energy biscuits and medical care along these two routes.

Once back in the north, UN aid workers have reported seeing Gazans using shovels to remove rubble and setting up makeshift shelters or tents where their homes used to be.

Impending catastrophe

Any disruption to UNRWA’s work will have “catastrophic consequences on the lives and futures of Palestine refugees”, insisted Juliette Touma, Director of Communications for the UN Relief and Works Agency, pointing to the agency’s massive reach into the communities where it has provided free healthcare and education for decades.

Last October, the Israeli parliament – the Knesset – passed two laws that called for ending UNRWA’s operations in its territory and prohibiting Israeli authorities from having any contact with the agency.

That developed followed Israeli accusations that UNRWA workers were involved in the 7 October attacks that sparked the war in Gaza. Nine staff were sacked after an internal UN investigation for possible involvement.

Under the Knesset ban, UNRWA was ordered to vacate all premises in occupied East Jerusalem and cease operations in them by 30 January.

“Our teams continue to serve, even though they themselves in Gaza as an example, they themselves are impacted, they themselves have been forced to flee their homes,” Ms. Touma explained.

“They continue to serve and we are committed as UNRWA to stay and deliver across the Occupied Palestinian Territory. That includes the Gaza Strip, it includes the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

She noted that no official communication has been received from the Israeli authorities on how the Knesset ban will be implemented across the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

No alternative

“In the absence of any durable solution, Palestine refugees will continue to depend on UNRWA for basic services including health and education; and in Gaza, in the aftermath of the devastation caused by the war, for their sheer survival,” Ms. Touma maintained.

She noted that UNRWA’s health centres continued to receive patients in East Jerusalem in the West Bank on Thursday, while schools were expecting to reopen on Sunday after a scheduled break.

“Our teams…will continue to provide learning for children. We have around 50,000 boys and girls across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, who go to UNRWA’s schools,” Ms. Touma said.

Aid boost continues

As the UN-wide effort to flood Gaza with aid continues, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced plans to set up more aid distribution points this week in the north, where all of its bakeries are now running once again.

The UN agency reported that together with UNRWA it has resumed “fully-fledged” food parcel distribution and reached 350,000 people since the ceasefire took effect on 19 January.

Some 20,000 hot meals are also being distributed daily in Beit Lahia, in the far north, said Antoine Renard, WFP’s Country Director in Palestine, who underscored the need for non-food supplies – so-called dual use items – to be allowed into the war-shattered enclave also.

Medical emergency

Echoing that message, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said that only 18 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even partly functional, with just one-third – 57 of the 142 primary healthcare centres and 11 field hospitals – also partly functional.

“The ceasefire is good news for our scale up of aid,” said  Dr Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in OPT. “As we know, the influx in the north has increased health needs. So 450,000 people have crossed into northern Gaza [and] there’s only there 10 partially functional hospitals in Gaza City and one minimally functional hospital in north Gaza.”

Amid reports that 2,500 children at risk of imminent death in Gaza need immediate medical evacuation, Dr Peeperkorn said that between 12,000 and 14,000 people need specialized care outside the enclave.

“So, what we have been asking for all the time…is first and foremost a restoration of the referrals, the traditional referral pathway to West Bank and East Jerusalem. The East Jerusalem hospitals and the West Bank hospitals are ready to receive Gazan and Palestinian critical patients,” he said.

Briefing journalists in New York on Friday, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said UN aid coordination office, OCHA, remained “deeply alarmed” by the worsening conditions for residents in norther areas of the occupied West Bank, as Israeli counter-terrorism operations continued for an 11^th day.

“Nearly all of the Jenin refugee camp’s 20,000 residents have been displaced over the past two month in the context of operations by both the Palestinian Authority and Israeli security forces.

A further Israeli operation is occurring in Tulkarm where aid partners report that over 110 families have been displaced from the refugee camp there.

Freed hostage says she was held in UNRWA facility

One of the hostages freed from captivity in Gaza reportedly told the UK Prime Minister in a phone call on Friday that she had been held by Hamas for some time in facilities belonging to UNRWA, according to her mother.

Emily Damari was freed 12 days ago and is missing two fingers following her 15-month ordeal. She told Keir Starmer that Hamas had twice denied her access to medical treatment after being shot twice, in the hand and the leg.

Responding to Ms. Damari’s statement that she had been held inside an UNRWA facility, the UN Palestine refugee agency’s spokesperson Juliette Touma told the BBC that most UNRWA buildings were turned into shelters as soon as the war began and claims that any hostage had been held in one of their facilities was extremely serious.

Ms. Touma said the agency had repeatedly called for independent investigations into these claims, including the misuse and disregard of UNRWA premises by Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas.