Antonia Marie de Meo, representative of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), told the Security Council on Friday that more than one shelter for displaced Palestinians had been bombed by Israel.

In her speech before the Security Council, today, Friday, she confirmed that more than 560 displaced women and children were martyred while they were sheltering behind the United Nations flag.

Antonia Marie de Meo, Deputy Commissioner-General of UNRWA, pointed out that the Security Council issued resolutions to end the war, but they had no effect and the suffering in the Gaza Strip is increasing, noting that two-thirds of the agency's facilities and installations in the Gaza Strip were bombed.

“The Israeli Knesset will pass bills that target us and destroy the foundation of international law,” she warned, explaining that there is an anti-UNRWA campaign that will undermine the UN’s mandate over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

She stated that the past two weeks witnessed the targeting of two UNRWA humanitarian aid convoys heading to the northern Gaza Strip and they were bombed by Israeli forces despite the existence of coordination and protection measures.

The UNRWA representative stressed that "there are relentless efforts to dismantle UNRWA, and many of the agency's employees have not obtained entry visas. The permit for the UNRWA Commissioner-General expired a month ago and has not been renewed, and employees do not obtain a permit for more than two months only."

Israeli Knesset

She pointed out that on July 22, the Israeli parliament (Knesset) approved a preliminary reading of draft laws related to UNRWA, which prohibit the agency’s operations in occupied Jerusalem and cancel privileges and immunities that the agency has had since 1949, in addition to classifying it as a terrorist organization.

She explained that if these laws were passed by the Israeli Knesset, this would bypass international resolutions, undermine the agency's powers, and violate multilateral international norms.

She said in a Security Council session on Friday that “UNRWA is facing severe difficulties in its work in Gaza, and we will feel the effects of the enactment of Israeli laws, and there will be no consideration for humanitarian standards in the world.”

The UN official called for rejecting calls to dismantle the agency because its existence preserves Palestinian refugees and their rights.

She also called for providing protection to the agency, as it must continue its work because there is no alternative to it in Gaza, and for providing protection against the attacks it is exposed to.

European rejection

Earlier on Friday, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, called on Israel to stop its efforts to classify UNRWA as a terrorist organization.

Borrell described these efforts as nonsense.

He said via his account on the X platform, “Banning UNRWA and describing it as a terrorist organization, which it is not in fact, represents an attack on regional stability and the human dignity of all those who benefit from the work of the UN agency.”

The World Food Programme announced that it had been forced to reduce food rations for families in the Gaza Strip, citing the reason for this as its attempt to ensure wider coverage for the newly displaced.

The programme pointed to the limited food stocks and humanitarian supplies in central and southern Gaza, stressing that no commercial supplies have entered the Strip.

On the other hand, UNRWA stated in a previous statement that 9 out of 10 people in the Gaza Strip were forcibly displaced, and that displaced families are seeking shelter wherever they can, whether in crowded schools, destroyed buildings, modest tents on the sand, or amid piles of garbage.

The UN agency stressed that none of the places to which the displaced are heading is safe and people no longer have anywhere to go.