Foreign Ministry: Targeting UNRWA is a serious escalation and an Israeli crime that requires firm international positions and the imposition of sanctions

SadaNews - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the Israeli Knesset's move to push forward a dangerous bill aimed at legislating the deprivation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) of basic services in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, and allowing the seizure of its premises and properties. This step represents a direct targeting of a humanitarian UN agency that enjoys international legal immunity and has a global consensus on its vital and irreplaceable role, in addition to the fact that Israel has no sovereignty over the Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, nor over the UNRWA.

The Ministry warned in a statement today, Wednesday, that the continuous targeting of UNRWA by the occupation does not only harm a humanitarian agency but also poses a serious threat to the entire international humanitarian system, and is a deliberate attempt to criminalize humanitarian relief and continue the genocidal war, displacement, and starvation, which puts the international community to a real test of its credibility and commitment to protect its UN institutions and prevent their undermining or submission to the will of force and imposition of facts on the ground, and is a clear violation of the legal ruling regarding UNRWA from the International Court of Justice.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates called on the international community, including all countries, the United Nations, the Security Council, and member states, to take firm international positions, and to act immediately and seriously to provide full political and legal protection for UNRWA, ensuring its continued performance of its humanitarian tasks without obstacles or threats, and to impose deterrent sanctions on Israel, the illegitimate occupying authority, holding it accountable for its serious and ongoing violations of international humanitarian law, and holding accountable all those involved in the process of legislating the crime of targeting UNRWA, halting dealings with the occupation government, the Knesset, and its members who incite against the Palestinian people and UN organizations, those entities that have made genocide, starvation, displacement, terrorism, and extremism their methodology.