Scaling Down UNRWA's Role in Gaza.. How Does the "Peace Council" Serve Efforts to End the Refugee Issue?
A report addressing the campaign to sideline and reduce the role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, by preventing the entry of aid and paving the way for alternative institutions. The article focuses on the "Peace Council's" announcement rejecting the agency's involvement in its work, considering this aligns with the occupation's vision to end the refugee issue and the right of return, and warns of this policy extending to other regions.
A report from Gaza by Yahya al-Ya'qubi addresses the campaign to sideline and reduce the role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip. The report indicates that the agency faces an ongoing exclusion process through the prevention of thousands of its aid trucks, stalled at crossings, from entering, limiting its relief and humanitarian role. In contrast, the occupation allows other international institutions to perform UNRWA's roles, in a clear paving of the way for them to replace it. The article focuses on the "Peace Council's" announcement in a post on the "X" platform last Friday, in which it affirmed its continued policy of refusing to involve UNRWA in its work in the Gaza Strip. This announcement comes in the context of discussions about reshaping Gaza's reality after the genocide war, raising fears that ending UNRWA's role could be a prelude to undermining the right of return. The report quotes statements by the head of the "302" Commission for the Defense of Palestinian Refugee Rights, Ali al-Huwaidi, who believes these statements serve the vision of the US administration and the Israeli occupation, noting that 93 members of the US Congress sent a letter to President Trump to dismantle the agency. Al-Huwaidi asserts that any scaling down of the agency is a response to the Congress members' letter and a strategic vision to end the refugee issue, referring to a 2018 agreement between Netanyahu and Trump to dismantle UNRWA.