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The United States has said Israel cannot be compelled to allow the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to operate in Gaza, asserting that the country has the sovereign right to choose which organizations may provide aid within its borders and occupied territories, foreign media reported on Wednesday.
Speaking during a world court hearing in The Hague, US officials underscored that Israel’s decision to block UNRWA stems from “serious concerns about UNRWA’s impartiality,” particularly following allegations of the agency’s links to Hamas.
“There are serious concerns about UNRWA’s impartiality, including information that Hamas has used UNRWA facilities and that UNRWA staff participated in the 7 October terrorist attack against Israel,” Josh Simmons from the US State Department legal team said at the court hearing, according to AFP.
The hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are part of a request by the United Nations General Assembly, which in December sought an advisory opinion on Israel’s obligations to facilitate humanitarian aid delivery by UN bodies and international organisations to Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel’s Ban on UNRWA
In 2023, Israel enacted a law prohibiting UNRWA operations within the country, citing evidence that some of the agency’s employees were active members of Hamas, the group that led the October 7 attacks on Israeli territory. According to Reuters, Israel claimed that at least one UNRWA employee, identified as a Hamas commander, was killed during military action in Gaza.
The UN later confirmed that nine UNRWA employees may have been involved in the October attacks and were subsequently dismissed, the report said, adding that the UN report further fuelled Israel’s decision to sever ties with the organisation.
Abuse Allegations by UNRWA
UNRWA has levelled serious accusations against the Israeli military. Philippe Lazzarini, the agency’s commissioner-general, alleged that more than 50 UNRWA staff—including doctors, teachers and social workers — had been subjected to severe abuse while in Israeli military detention.
“They have been treated in the most shocking & inhumane way. They reported being beaten and used as human shields,” Lazzarini wrote in a post on X, adding that detainees had experienced “sleep deprivation, humiliation, threats of harm to them & their families + attacks by dogs … [and] forced confessions”.
“I wished for death to end the nightmare I was living through”.
Received this awful testimony from a colleague who was rounded up in #Gaza tortured while in Israeli detention and finally released.
For @UNRWA staff humanitarian duty is met with brutality.
Since the start of…— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) April 29, 2025
UN officials reportedly said these incidents took place both within Gaza and in Israeli detention centers. The Israeli military recently said investigations were ongoing into alleged misconduct by soldiers, including the reported use of detainees as human shields, and that it has initiated disciplinary proceedings in some cases.
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