Governments should disregard the statement from the US President Donald Trump-chaired Board of Peace that “UNRWA has no place in the new Gaza,” the latest salvo in the US and Israeli government’s long-running campaign to destroy the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
Even before October 2023, UNRWA provided lifesaving humanitarian aid and services to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, and elsewhere. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) made clear in a 2025 advisory opinion that Israel is legally obligated to enable UNRWA to operate to ensure the unhindered provision of humanitarian relief to civilians in Gaza.
UNRWA remains the backbone of humanitarian aid in Gaza. Humanitarian aid organizations active in the region have said that UNRWA is irreplaceable and undermining its role will create a dangerous—and potentially catastrophic—vacuum.
UNRWA delivers food and medical assistance to people in Gaza, provides education to hundreds of thousands of children who have been largely deprived of their right to education for over two years, provides psychosocial support to 730,000 displaced people, and potable water to 860,000 people daily. States deliberately obstructing such humanitarian aid is a violation of international law.
UNRWA has maintained this critical support even though nearly 400 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, many of its facilities have been damaged or destroyed, and funding suspensions have brought it to the brink of collapse.
The Board of Peace does not have the power to decide whether UNRWA has a role in Gaza: the Agency’s mandate can only be amended or terminated by the UN General Assembly, and states voted overwhelmingly to renew its mandate in December 2025. Human Rights Watch has previously warned of the danger of the Board of Peace undermining the UN and its agencies.
Israeli authorities should comply with international obligations and stop ongoing attacks on UNRWA and other humanitarian organizations. States should continue to fund and support UNRWA and protect its mandate. Rather than vilifying UNRWA, it would be far more productive for the US and Board of Peace to press Israel to respect its obligations under international law and to stop impeding entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, which remains woefully insufficient.
