‘No alternative to Unrwa’: UN chief calls on Israel not to ban and criminalise Palestinian aid

UN secretary general António Guterres has called on Israel not to ban and criminalise aid to Palestinians and reminded the country of its obligation to international law.
Israeli politicians passed two laws on Monday that could threaten the work of the main UN agency providing aid to people in Gaza by barring it from operating on Israeli soil, severing ties with it and labelling it a terror organisation.
Mr Guterres said Unrwa, the UN Palestinian refugee agency, would be prevented from doing UN-mandated work if the laws are implemented. “There is no alternative to Unrwa,” he said in a statement.
He then called on Israel “to act consistently with its obligations” under both UN Charter and international law, as well as the privileges and immunities of the United Nations. “National legislation cannot alter those obligations,” Mr Guterres added.
Israel’s parliament approved a second piece of legislation on Monday to cut ties with the main UN provider of aid to Gaza and to designate it a terror organisation, threatening the agency as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza mounts.
The Bill prohibits ties between Israeli officials and UN Agency for Palestinian refugees Unrwa. It also strips Unrwa staff of their legal immunities. It followed an earlier Bill passed and banned all activity of Unrwa on Israeli soil.
The legislation, which would not take effect immediately, risks collapsing the already fragile aid distribution process at a moment when the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worsening and Israel is under increased US pressure to ramp up aid.
The two Bills signal a new low in relations between Israel and Unrwa, which Israel accuses of maintaining close ties with Hamas militants. The changes are also a serious blow to the agency and to Palestinians in Gaza who have become reliant upon it for aid throughout more than a year of war.
At least 55 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya on Tuesday, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA and Hamas media reported. Many of those killed in the strike were women and children, WAFA reported, citing medics.
In Lebanon, at least 60 people were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, two security sources and the mayor of Baalbek told Reuters on Monday. – Agencies