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On Monday evening, Israel’s Knesset approved two bills essentially barring the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East from operating in Israel and severely curtailing its activities in Gaza and the West Bank. The new measures are expected to come into force within 90 days.

The Knesset’s action was taken despite global appeals, including from the US and other friends of Israel, against this move. It is believed to be part of a larger plan to dismantle UNRWA and tighten the siege of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, deliberately increasing the suffering of the Palestinians in an attempt to force them to leave and to make the realization of a two-state solution more difficult.

If implemented, the new measures would have disastrous results for most of Gaza’s 2 million beleaguered residents, as UNRWA is their only lifeline — as it has been for the past 75 years, since the organization was established by the UN in 1949. It is the main provider of education and health services in the Strip. In addition to Gaza, UNRWA is responsible for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and beyond. In 2023, about 6 million people were registered with the relief agency and eligible to receive its assistance.

The votes were shocking. One bill barring UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory was approved with 92 votes in favor and just 10 against, while the other — curtailing its activities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by banning state authorities from having any contact with the agency — passed by 87 votes to nine. According to UNRWA officials, it will be almost impossible for the agency to work in Gaza or the West Bank if Israel stops issuing entry permits to those territories or allowing coordination with its security forces. Since taking over the Gaza-Egypt border post and deploying its troops along the border in May, Israel controls all points of access to Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel has already de facto curtailed UNRWA’s activities in Gaza, where the population is facing starvation and dwindling supplies of medicines and vaccines. The new laws will make it worse.

Failure to cooperate with UN agencies, let alone actively barring them, is a serious violation of the UN Charter

Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg

Obstructing the work of UNRWA is a clear breach of the UN Charter. Member states have a duty to cooperate with the UN and its organs, especially those of a humanitarian, economic, social or cultural nature. Articles 1, 2, 55 and 56 of the charter, as well as many UN treaties and resolutions, make that duty unambiguous. There is a higher duty to refrain from obstructing their work. Failure to cooperate with UN agencies, let alone actively barring them from carrying out their duties, is thus a serious violation of the UN Charter. Chapter II makes membership of the UN itself conditional on respecting its charter.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in Riyadh on Wednesday that the bills were part of a larger effort by Israel to dismantle UNRWA, tighten the siege of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and make a two-state solution more difficult. Israel has made the dismantling of UNRWA an objective of the war, “in defiance of the General Assembly and Security Council resolutions and of the International Court of Justice, including with a plan to replace UNRWA in East Jerusalem with settlements,” Lazzarini said. He added that, in the past year, “at least 237 of our colleagues have been killed, many with their families,” and nearly “200 of our buildings have been damaged or destroyed, killing hundreds of displaced people seeking UN protection.”

Besides breaching the UN Charter, Israel’s action could trigger war crimes prosecutions, as it is likely that barring UNRWA from carrying out its duties will intensify the catastrophic conditions in Gaza, including starvation, with famine looming not far behind.

The US-based Human Rights Watch stated: “The Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon of war has proven deadly for children in Gaza.” It warned that children in Gaza have been dying from starvation-related complications. Doctors and families in Gaza have described children, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, suffering from severe malnutrition and dehydration, with hospitals ill-equipped to treat them.

The World Health Organization has also found “children dying of starvation” and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that Israel bore significant blame. He added that there was a “plausible” case that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza and that, if intent were to be proven, that would amount to a war crime.

International humanitarian law prohibits the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. This prohibition is clearly spelled out in the Geneva Conventions’ additional protocols and has become part of customary international law. In addition, Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court provides that intentionally starving civilians by “depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies,” is a war crime.

Barring UNRWA from providing basic services will only add to the levels of starvation already observed in Gaza

Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg

At the core of the request for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant made by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor are allegations that the two were part of a plan to use “the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” in Gaza.

Barring UNRWA from providing basic services will only add to the levels of starvation already observed in Gaza.

The international community should heed Lazzarini’s call for help by using “all the political, diplomatic and legal tools” to reject Israel’s attempts to dismantle UNRWA, sideline the UN and undermine multilateralism. This means that the bills need to be rescinded or their application put on hold. Secondly, he asked that UNRWA’s role is safeguarded “today and during the inevitably long and painful transition between a ceasefire and the day after.”

Late on Wednesday, the UN Security Council expressed “grave concern” over Israel’s new legislation and “strongly warned against any attempts to dismantle or diminish UNRWA’s operations and mandate, recognizing that any interruption or suspension of its work would have severe humanitarian consequences for millions of Palestinian refugees who depend on the agency’s services and also implications for the region.”

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said on Tuesday that Oslo was “initiating a UN resolution asking the International Court of Justice to clarify Israel’s legal obligations to ensure that aid reaches Palestinians,” adding that “UNRWA must survive. No country is above international law.”

There is a special obligation on Israel’s closest friends, such as the US, UK and Germany, to make sure that it rescinds the new legislation or suspends its implementation.

• Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the Gulf Cooperation Council assistant secretary-general for political affairs and negotiation. The views expressed here are personal and do not necessarily represent the GCC. X: @abuhamad1