While the Israeli far-right tries to put the brakes on a possible new truce agreement, humanitarian aid to Gaza is suspended in the future of UNRWA. The agency is very violently attacked by Israel for having employed Gazans compromised in the October 7 attacks.
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Behind his desk, before launching into the arena, the spokesperson for the Secretary General of the UN, the Frenchman Stéphane Dujarric, takes a small sip from his sky blue flask, the color of the United Nations. For this press conference, Wednesday January 31, the sky is stormy. The survival of the organization’s main agency is at stake. UNRWA, the United Nations relief and works agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East, is accused of having hired 12 Palestinians in Gaza. According to Eylon Levy, spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister, they participated in the terrible attacks of October 7. “The agency is not a neutral organizationhe assures. It was hijacked by Hamas. Our intelligence has established that of approximately 12,000 employees, 10% are Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives.”
This is not the first time that the UN has been in Israel’s sights. In 2018, with the support of Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu had already tried to disconnect this agency, which according to him perpetuates the situation of refugees. Of course, UNRWA in Palestine is a state within a state. In an environment of institutional collapse, it maintains a health, education and development service for refugees, as in Balata in the occupied West Bank. This is where Ahmed Abu Shehadé, a teacher for UNRWA, lives. “Who built this camp? UNRWA. Who brings us food aid? UNRWA. Even my blood is UNRWA.”
“During this time people need to survive”
This time, the Israelis’ blow was successful. The agency’s main funders have suspended their aid. The respiratory assistance it has provided since the start of the war in Gaza threatens to collapse at the end of the month. In front of the press, Stéphane Dujarric climbs the dikes to try to avoid the collapse of the entire institution. “We are working on responsibilitiesdeclares the spokesperson for the UN Secretary General. But in the meantime, people need to survive and we must be able to continue UNRWA’s humanitarian support.”
Coincidentally, the fire at UNRWA begins the day when another UN body, the International Court of Justice, warns of the risks of genocide in Gaza. In their order, the 17 judges notably ask the Jewish state to allow access to humanitarian aid. Johann Soufi, lawyer, specialist in international law, believes that “the legal obligation applies to all States, in particular States allied to Israel, which must take all measures, we are talking about economic sanctions, arms embargoes, to prevent genocide.”
The order of the International Court of Justice is not binding. In 2014, the same court ruled that the separation wall built by Israel was illegal. Without obtaining the slightest progress.
“The only possible option”
History will perhaps remember that it was in Paris that the second truce agreement was put on track. Tuesday, January 30, a document was given to the political leader of Hamas, Ismaïl Haniyeh. He plans a six-week truce in exchange for a new process for releasing the hostages. There is still a way to go, but the intelligence services of the four countries that developed this framework believe that it is a proposal capable of bringing together positions that are still far apart. On the American channel MSNBC, Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, the Qatari Prime Minister, says “that we cannot improve things very quickly, but we hope to see Hamas move towards a constructive position. We think that today, this is the only possible option.”
Thibault Lefèvre, Radio France correspondent in Jerusalem, has observed in recent weeks the contortions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, caught between the far right who threaten to bring down his coalition in the event of a truce, and the Americans who weigh heavily more and more to avoid regional consolidation. Americans want to avoid being entirely sucked into the conflict. Their proxy standoff with Iran cost the lives of three soldiers in Jordan. Boat traffic in the Red Sea remains disrupted. And on the border between Israel and Lebanon, the risk of escalation remains palpable.
The escape of Khan Younes
Khaled is one of the Gazans who were able to leave the fighting zone in Khan Younes. He left a hospital near the epicenter and took the road to the sea. With hundreds of other Palestinians terrorized by this war which is forcing civilians to flee town after town towards the border.
“There are areas where we should be running, areas where we were hiding on the ground, frankly, we were dying on our feet.”
“Imagine the poor Gazans stuck between the massive Israeli bombings on one side, and the rapacity of certain Egyptian officers on the other” : As Eric Goldstein, Middle East and North Africa spokesperson for Human Rights Watch, says, there are no limits to the financial exploitation of desperation. In Gaza, little by little, networks were organized to extract money from survivors.
The Egyptians, who control the only border that escapes Israel, have reauthorized crossings for wealthy Palestinians. They have, in a way, set up a survival toll. You have to pay a lot of money to leave Gaza. This system existed at a lower cost before the war, it has been reactivated. Rami Abu Jamous, a journalist in Gaza, explains that the Egyptians saw it as a good source of money: “If I want to go out with my wife and my children, I pay 7 000 dollars to an intermediary who is in Gaza. The day you get your name on the list, you get in.”
“Liquidating UNRWA would be equivalent to liquidating the right of return”
Jalal Al Husseini, associate researcher at the French Institute of the Middle East (IFPO) in Amman, believes that without UNRWA, we would enter a cycle of humanitarian disasters. “UNRWA in Gaza is even more powerful than the Palestinian Authority as it is administered, believes the specialist. It’s as if you eliminated a large part of the hospital and educational services in France. It’s unthinkable.”
“UNRWA over the years has become, despite itself and by default, the symbol of the right of return. So in the mind of the Israeli far-right government, liquidating UNRWA would be equivalent to liquidating the right of return.”
According to the researcher, UNRWA “is not only a symbol, it is a quasi-government, and therefore there is no alternative. But I think after the episode of the International Court of Justice, it was a question of giving certain guarantees to Israel.”
In this episode: Thibault Lefèvre, Alice Froussard, Rami Abu Jamous
Director: Etienne Monin, Pauline Pennanec’h, Geoffroy Baccialone