Palestinian fear and Israeli celebrations as Unrwa ban begins

Israel's banning of the UN agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) came into effect on Thursday, with Palestinians gravely worried about the impact it will have on the provision of basic humanitarian needs and services.
There are two Knesset laws targeting Unrwa: one prohibits the agency's work within “areas under Israeli sovereignty", while the other bans any contact with the agency.
The Israeli law says the ban on the UN agency would include occupied East Jerusalem, though it is recognised internationally as Palestinian land. Israel annexed the area in 1967 in a move widely condemned by the international community.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, on Tuesday notified the UN Security Council that Israel would terminate its cooperation with the agency.
"UNRWA must cease its activities in Israel and evacuate all of its facilities in Jerusalem," Danon said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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According to Unrwa's communications director, the agency has yet to receive any official communication on how the Israeli parliament's ban will be implemented.
"For now, our plan is to undertake our duties - that is to deliver services and humanitarian assistance to people wherever they are in the occupied Palestinian territory," Juliette Touma told ABC News in an interview on Thursday.
'We are in the dark. We have not received any instructions from Israel [on] how the ban will be enforced beyond being told to vacate'
- Juliette Touma, Unwra
communications director
The agency's headquarters in East Jerusalem remains, Touma told The Guardian, adding that it must be protected as it is a UN compound.
"We don’t have plans to close our operations,” Touma said, adding that the agency's efforts in the West Bank and Gaza are ongoing.
“But we are in the dark. We have not received any instructions from Israel how the ban will be enforced beyond being told to vacate.”
On Thursday, the official social media account of Unrwa posted that the agency "continues to deliver assistance and services to the communities we serve. Our clinics across the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem are open while the humanitarian operation in Gaza continues."
Amid security concerns after a celebration was organised by far-right Israelis, staff left the Unrwa compound in the area. The UN compound has since been defaced with graffiti and Israeli flags.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the right-wing deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Arieh King, organised the event.
The UN agency provides services to more than 110,000 refugees in Jerusalem, with its most notable work in the Shuafat and Qalandya refugee camps.
US cutting funding
Earlier this week, Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of Unrwa, said the implementation of a ban on the agency's operations inside Israel would cripple its ability to work in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, where a fragile ceasefire currently remains in place.
Lazzarini told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the ban would "heighten instability and deepen despair in the occupied Palestinian territory at a critical moment.
“The relentless assault on Unrwa is harming the lives and future of Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territory," he said.
“It is eroding their trust in the international community, jeopardising any prospect for peace and security.”
The UN agency provides aid, health and education services to millions in the Palestinian territories, as well as the millions of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the neighbouring countries of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
Unrwa has also for decades run schools and medical clinics in occupied East Jerusalem, which Israel seized from Jordan in the 1967 war.
US President Donald Trump has supported Israel's decision to close Unrwa's offices.
"It is Israel’s sovereign decision to close Unrwa's offices in Jerusalem on 30 January. The United States supports the implementation of this decision," US deputy ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea, told the Security Council on Tuesday.
"Unrwa exaggerating the effects of the laws and suggesting that they will force the entire humanitarian response to halt is irresponsible and dangerous," Shea said.
Trump's support for Israel's attacks on Unrwa is not new. Under the previous Trump administration, Washington cut funding to the UN agency, saying it was a "flawed operation".
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