‘There is no alternative’: Israel’s ban on vital Unrwa services will be a catastrophe for Gaza

Israel’s anti-Unrwa legislation will sever aid to 2.3 million people, unless Benjamin Netanyahu can be convinced to veto it

Israeli soldiers take position as they enter the UNRWA headquarter where the military discovered tunnels underneath of the UN agency that the military says Hamas militants used to attack its forces during a ground operation in Gaza, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024. Picture: AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File

Bin bags were piling up at one end of the chaotic main thoroughfare in Shuafat refugee camp on Friday morning as shoppers walked by, stepping over a stream of wastewater trickling from a nearby drainpipe. Poor sanitation is just one of the UN-administered Palestinian camp’s problems – but things will get much worse.

Despite huge international pressure not to jeopardise the work of Unrwa, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the Israeli parliament voted this week to ban the organisation from operating on its soil. It also declared it a terror group, in effect severing all cooperation and communication between the UN agency and the Jewish state.