Israel’s attack on UNRWA is central to its genocide of the Palestinians: UNRWA’s mandate to provide for Palestinian refugees makes it a direct threat to the Israeli genocidal project.

A member of the Israeli forces walks past the rubble of a dismantled structure at the Jerusalem headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in East Jerusalem on January 20, 2026 [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

By Christopher Gunness

Director of the Myanmar Accountability Project.

5 Apr 2026

It is time for the United Nations to accept that Israel’s attack on its agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is an essential part of the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people. This is not an accusation coming from a critic of Israel. It is a clear, on-the-record statement from the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Arieh King, who, in January, invoked divine Jewish authority, proudly proclaiming, “God willing, we will expel, kill, eliminate, and destroy all UNRWA personnel.”

As an agency founded specifically to serve Palestinian refugees after the creation of Israel in 1948, UNRWA has been involved in almost every aspect of the lives of millions of Palestinians. Its programmes span primary health, community mental health initiatives, education, relief and social services, mother and child healthcare, and refugee camp improvement.

Moreover, UNRWA’s extensive and recently digitised archive contains property deeds and proof of land ownership, which can assist the Palestinians in securing compensation and the right of return, which many Israelis see as an existential threat to the Jewish state.

UNRWA’s very existence, as a reminder of the Palestinians’ entitlement to a full range of inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination, has always made the physical and political destruction of the agency an imperative for successive Israeli governments. Numerous statements by Israeli officials attest to this, boastfully and as a matter of public record.

Israel’s decades-long campaign against UNRWA was ratcheted up exponentially when the latest phase of the genocide began in October 2023. That is because UNRWA’s function to promote long and healthy lives for the Palestinians was diametrically opposed to Israel’s genocidal goals, which, according to the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, include the imposition of conditions of life calculated to bring about their destruction in whole or in part.

In its provisional ruling in January 2024 in the genocide case brought by South Africa, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Israel was not allowing the necessary humanitarian aid to enter Gaza... READ MORE https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/4/5/israels-attack-on-unrwa-is-central-to-its-genocide-of-the-palestinians

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