Why attacking UNRWA is attacking Gaza’s survival
The UN agency is able to provide much-needed services to the entire Strip at scale, but it is prevented from doing so.
Palestinian
children gather in the yard of the UNRWA Deir el-Balah Joint School,
west of Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip on December 6, 2025
[AFP]
The January 14 announcement of the new Palestinian technical committee to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction comes at a critical moment. While states are discussing the governance and reconstruction of Gaza, on the ground, the basic survival of 2.1 million people hangs by a thread. This moment demands immediate action to lift the ongoing and suffocating restrictions that are systematically dismantling the very means for Palestinians to survive.
Famine conditions in Gaza have moderately stabilised, but the humanitarian catastrophe continues to deepen. Families remain displaced without adequate shelter; children still go to bed hungry; and basic healthcare is out of reach for hundreds of thousands.
Winter rains have turned displacement camps into seas of mud, exacerbating suffering and significantly increasing the risk of disease outbreaks. Daily Israeli air attacks and bombardments continue, with more than 480 Palestinians killed since the ceasefire agreement was announced in October. This month alone, seven UNRWA school compounds in eastern Gaza have been demolished by Israeli forces.
UNRWA remains Gaza’s largest and most comprehensive service provider, effectively acting as the public sector for more than half the population. Our 11,000 staff continue to operate despite immense risks, as they have done each day since October 7, 2023.
They are providing healthcare to almost 100,000 people each week and education to 70,000 children in damaged school premises across Gaza. Our schools also shelter tens of thousands of displaced families.
UNRWA teams essentially function like a local municipality; we distribute water and collect solid waste from entire communities, covering the needs of more than half the population.
When we speak of “service delivery”, these are not abstract programmes. We are talking about the clinics where children are vaccinated, the classrooms where traumatised boys and girls find some collective care, and the distribution points where families are provided with basic sustenance.
Yet our ability to respond remains severely impeded by systematic barriers. What should we understand from the entire and complete assault on the most basic services needed for any community to survive?
Our goods are prevented from entering Gaza. We are unable to communicate with Israeli authorities – the occupying power that controls all of Gaza’s land, air and sea crossings – due to the “no contact” law passed by the Israeli parliament in October 2024.
Our international staff – myself included – are barred from entering Gaza to support the work of our teams on the ground.
Nowhere is the inhumanity of these restrictions more evident than in the denial of children’s basic rights. About 700,000 Palestinian children in Gaza are being systematically denied their right to education. Before the war, UNRWA was educating 300,000 of these children, accounting for two-thirds of all primary schooling.
UNRWA alone has the capacity, expertise and reach to resume this work at scale across Gaza, yet we are prevented from doing so by the same restrictions that target our broader operations.
We have launched a “Back to Learning” campaign to bring some hope and normality to children who have known only war, displacement and loss for more than two years. But instead of supporting this effort, the restrictions we face mean that most children remain in the rubble-strewn streets. This is a continuous and deliberate attack on their future.
We are not alone in facing unacceptable challenges that defy the most basic obligations of an occupying power under international law. The registration process for international NGOs has become a de facto blockade in itself, with the vast majority of the existing aid system now on the brink of shutdown.
Restrictions on so-called dual-use items have turned basic shelter and construction materials, among other essential supplies, into contraband, leaving families exposed to the elements and rendering reconstruction impossible as harsh winter weather persists.
This brings us to the uncomfortable truth: These restrictions are not merely bureaucratic impediments. They appear to be part of ongoing efforts to systematically dismantle the means for Palestinians to survive. Every restriction, every obstacle, every denial of basic materials adds another layer of evidence to South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). So too do the attacks on the one United Nations agency – UNRWA – that is able to provide basic education and healthcare at scale, but is prevented from doing so.
UNRWA has a proven ability to provide continuous education, healthcare, social welfare, sanitation, humanitarian assistance and other support. It enjoys the trust and confidence of the Gaza population, whose world has been erased since October 2023.
Preserving UNRWA until there is a lasting peace is a pragmatic solution for anyone serious about Gaza’s future. It is essential for the wellbeing and recovery of more than two million people who have suffered beyond imagination.
Make no mistake – this is about far more than the future of a single UN agency. This is about defending the international rules-based order. When states pressure humanitarian responders, restrict humanitarian access and ignore ICJ rulings, they are targeting Palestinians while also attacking the very foundations of international law.
This has transcended the Palestine context and become a test case for the viability of humanitarian action and international law worldwide.
The time for half-measures and diplomatic ambiguity is over. The survival of Gaza is intrinsically linked to UNRWA’s continued operation. Defending this is about defending humanity, international law, and the possibility that even in the darkest circumstances, the world will continue to support compassion over cruelty.
The overwhelming majority of states voted in December 2025 to renew UNRWA’s mandate in the UN General Assembly. But that decision is impeded by the perpetrator of what the ICJ has found to be an illegal occupation and what the UN Commission of Inquiry has concluded is a genocide. The choice must now be clear: We can either stand by as Gaza’s lifeline is systematically cut, or we can act collectively to protect what remains and rebuild what has been destroyed.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/1/31/why-attacking-unrwa-is-attacking-gazas-survival