UN: UNRWA's Staff To Leave Jerusalem, Basic Services In Danger

1/30/2025 3:07:38 AM

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (KUNA) -- The UN announced that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) staff began to leave Jerusalem at dawn on Thursday, hours before the scheduled date for implementing decisions imposed by the Israeli Occupation that threaten to hinder its activities in all occupied Palestinian territories.
In a statement, UNRWA spokesperson Jonathan Fowler warned, "stopping UNRWA operations in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, will lead to the collapse of basic services for thousands of Palestinian refugees, including patients and students."
Fowler pointed out that the lack of real and realistic alternatives makes the termination of UNRWA's work a "humanitarian catastrophe" that adds to the suffering of refugees in the region.
He said that "the agency's compound in East Jerusalem belongs to the UN and enjoys protection under the 1946 Convention on Diplomatic Posts," rejecting plans indicated by the occupation media to build homes and shops on the site, i.e. establish settlement units.
In October, the Israeli occupation parliament (Knesset) passed a law banning UNRWA's activities in the occupied territories and prohibiting it from operating any representative office. The law goes into effect today. (end)
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