As part of its fierce campaign against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Israel plans to prevent the agency from working in the occupied Palestinian territories and replace it with another agency that is also affiliated with the United Nations. Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported today, Monday, that the most likely option is the World Food Program.

Israel claims that UNRWA employees participated in the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack carried out by Hamas fighters in southern Israel, last October 7. Since the beginning of the war, Israeli bombing has targeted many UNRWA centers and facilities in the Gaza Strip.

The newspaper reported that Israel is considering another option to replace UNRWA, which is the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was working in the sector to a reduced extent, and Israel is considering expanding its activity if the United States agrees to that.

Israel is also considering introducing other international civil bodies in the fields of education and health into Gaza, or establishing bodies formed by states and providing humanitarian care.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs is working on this plan, which aims to ensure that UNRWA will not be part of the “day after” in the Gaza Strip after the war. The newspaper reported that the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, instructed the Ministry's Director General, Yaakov Blitstein, last Thursday, to form a special working group on this plan.

The plan will be subject to approval by the government and the political-security cabinet in Israel. Katz called for the dismissal of the head of UNRWA, and instructed his ministry employees not to hold meetings with him.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed during his cabinet meeting yesterday, “In recent days, we revealed to the world that UNRWA is cooperating with Hamas, and even that a portion of its employees participated in the massacre and kidnapping on October 7. This reinforces what we have known for a long time, "UNRWA is not part of the solution, but rather part of the problem. It is time to begin the process of replacing UNRWA with other bodies that are not tainted by supporting terrorism."