Israel has killed 220 UNRWA staff in Gaza, but it is not satisfied; it wants to eliminate UNRWA itself.
Israel is working on laws that would stop UNRWA from operating, but this would not establish any replacement system. Israel would, I expect, simply never agree to one. Then it would have more "excuse" to stop humanitarian aid from getting into Gaza.
Israel condemns UNRWA because its work is done by local Palestinians, and some of them work for HAMAS.
I don't think that in practice there is any way to avoid this. It would not be feasible to get so many workers in Gaza in any other way.
If no substitute can get Israel's approval, that will cement the hunger in Gaza but enable Israel to pretend that it was due to a failing of the UN, rather than to Israel's obstruction.
Israel is already blocking the flow of US humanitarian aid, and would do so even more if it stops UNRWA from functioning. Under US law, the US is supposed to block military aid to Israel for this.
Israel attacked a school in Gaza where thousands of refugees were staying. It killed six employees of UNRWA and 12 other people. Supposedly some of them were HAMAS fighters.
UNRWA says that 50000 minors in Gaza are on the edge of starvation. UNICEF describes the constant obstruction applied by Israel to transport of aid into and within Gaza.
Let's not lose sight of where we want to end up.
*[UNRWA] says [Israeli] authorities are hampering [aid delivery] operations by failing to grant requests for access permits.*
Let's not lose sight of where we want to end up.
*Germany to resume funding of UNRWA aid operations in Gaza… after review says Israel has provided no evidence of terrorist links.*
Other countries must do likewise — because the alternative is horrible.
Let's not lose sight of where we want to end up.
*Israel's attempt to destroy UNRWA is part of its starvation strategy in Gaza.*
Let's not lose sight of where we want to end up.
*Sweden and Canada will resume aid to UN agency for Palestinians.* *To unblock the aid, UNRWA had agreed to "allow controls, independent audits, to strengthen internal supervision and extra controls of personnel".* This is to ensure that they don't work for HAMAS.
Israel has not provided proof of its accusations that some UNRWA employees work for HAMAS.
But it would not surprise me if that were true, since it is hard to hire a lot of people in Gaza without including some HAMAS members.
Let's not lose sight of where we want to end up.
The Israeli army showed reporters extensive tunnels under the UNRWA's main office in Gaza.
We cannot trust either HAMAS or Israel to tell the truth about events in Gaza, or about tunnels that exist there. But I think it must be true that these tunnels were built by HAMAS. I don't think Israel could have built tunnels 700 meters long in a few months in Gaza in the middle of the fighting. It could perhaps have set up a room full of electrical equipment supposedly connected to the tunnels, but I won't say those couldn't be the work of HAMAS.
I would expect that the construction of military facilities amidst UNRWA's facilities was a war crime committed by HAMAS. We already know HAMAS commits much worse violations of international humanitarian law.
It is plausible that the tunnels got their electricity from the UNRWA camp. Stealing electricity happens world-wide, but it is a minor issue compared to the war crimes in Gaza.
I don't think the UNRWA knew about these tunnels. I expect that HAMAS recruited some of the UNRWA staff and they ensured no one else learned of the existence of the tunnels. Israel has accused some of UNRWA's staff of serving HAMAS. That accusation is not proof as regards the guilt of specific individuals, but it is perfectly plausible that HAMAS infiltrated the staff of UNRWA. I expect Israel tried too but was not in a position to succeed very much.
This infiltration of UNRWA is no reason to cut the funding for the humanitarian aid it gives to Palestinians, and no excuse for continuing to subject hundreds of thousands in Gaza to death from hunger, thirst and disease.
The head of UNRWA says he fired employees that Israel accused of aiding HAMAS without having evidence that they really did so.
*It's right to probe UNRWA's problems &mdash yet what would replace it? Its critics have no answer.*
Israel accused 12 members of the UNRWA staff of fighting for HAMAS or other terrorist groups. This is being used as an excuse to cut off the aid to the Palestinians. Israel kept the information secret for months until a time when it badly needed to distract public opinion from the war crimes court's judgment against Israel.
The UNRWA is a UN humanitarian aid agency, not intended as a police force or peace keepers. It has 13,000 or so staff in Gaza, 99% of whom are Palestinians from Gaza. If 12 of them were fighting for HAMAS, that amounts to 0.1% of the total staff. For a large organization in Gaza to have such a small fraction of HAMAS fighters is doing pretty well at avoiding them.
War crimes that HAMAS and Israel seem to have committed, according to the UN.
HAMAS, as a terrorist organization, makes no effort to disguise its war crimes as anything but war crimes. That makes it easy to be certain that that's what they are.
Israel presents supposed excuses which surely can't be valid, but the UN won't state the conclusion as a certainty without an investigation.
UNRWA, which provides humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the West Bank, says that a cease fire is essential to save the civilians there, who are all in danger from the siege imposed by Israel.
Israel warned Palestinians to flee a large part of Gaza before a bigger attack, which might be carpet bombing or a ground attack. Civilians are leaving their homes in terror.
Gaza being small, they don't have far to go. But there is no safe place they can flee to in Gaza today. When the fighting is over, they will probably have no homes to return to. Israeli bombers have already flattened entire neighborhoods.
People in Gaza caught between evacuation order, HAMAS and bombs. There is no way to move badly sick patients in hospitals, and no guarantee those hospitals won't be bombed. The UNRWA is not evaluating schools in Gaza; will Israel bomb them for revenge?
*Blinken urges Israel to avoid civilian deaths and set up safe zones in Gaza.*
That is at least a step in the right direction for the US.
The troll threatened to cut funds for Palestinians, but there are two ways that could be done.
Cutting US funds for the Palestinian Authority would hamper it from helping to maintain Israel's dominion over the West Bank. Cutting US funds for UNRWA would starve Palestinians both inside and outside of Palestine.
How America Finances the Destruction in Gaza — and the Clean-Up.
Israel's army has attacked Gaza. This included bombardment of a hospital.
Israeli accusations that Hamas stores arms in civilian buildings were proved partly valid: the UNRWA found missiles in a disused school building.
Whether they store arms in civilian buildings that are actually in use is not proven.
The UNRWA says that there is a clear link between expansion of Israeli colonies in the West Bank and demolition of Palestinian structures.
The Israeli army destroyed 3 Palestinian wells near the Jordan River in order to give the water to Israeli agricultural colonies.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
That area is part of "Area C", the area in which the Israeli army maintains total control. The UN has documented the persistent systematic oppression of Palestinians in area C, designed to make them move away.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-16 because the old link was broken.]
Palestinians are squeezed with water shortages all around the West Bank, since Israel has taken 90% of the area's water resources.
[Reference updated on 2018-05-16 because the old link was broken.]
When I was in Ramallah, I saw that the Palestinian buildings all had large water tanks because water was available every third day — or less.
John Ging, UNRWA's director for Gaza,
asked the UK Parliament
to put pressure on Israel to end the blockade of Gaza.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-21 because the old link was broken.]
Israel
stopped the UNRWA staff from going to work in Jerusalem.
(And didn't even warn them.)
Israel continues killing and wounding Palestinians,
including its practice of killing people instead
of arresting them.
[References updated on 2018-04-25 because the old links were broken.]
But
some US Jewish organizations are starting to organize
to oppose Israeli policies that are cruel to Arabs.
[Reference updated on 2018-04-25 because the old link was broken.]