UN officials said they were preparing to close the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, warning that if Israeli authorities impose the new laws, no other organization will be able to replace UNRWA and its vital humanitarian operations in Gaza will cease at a time when famine threatens most of the territory's population.

“It would have a huge impact on an already catastrophic situation,” said Jamie McGoldrick, who oversaw the U.N. humanitarian operation in Gaza and the West Bank until April, according to The New York Times on Friday. “If that is the Israeli intention, to remove any ability for us to save lives, you have to wonder what the thinking is and what the end goal is,” he said.

UNRWA has become a mainstay of the international aid response since the beginning of the war on Gaza. With 5,000 staff in the Strip, UNRWA oversees the delivery of aid, runs shelters and medical clinics, distributes food aid, removes garbage and human waste, and provides fuel to run hospitals, water wells, and every other relief organization in Gaza.

Israel and UNRWA have had tense relations for decades, and Israel claims that the UN organization perpetuates the Palestinian refugee situation, but Israel exploited the Hamas attack, on October 7, 2023, to claim that 18 UNRWA employees participated in the attack, and Israel also claimed that Hamas uses UNRWA schools to hide fighters.

According to a UN investigation, nine staff members may have been involved in the attack and have been fired by the agency. UN officials reject most of the Israeli allegations and say the Israeli government has refused to release much of the evidence.

In late October, the Knesset passed a law banning UNRWA’s activities in the territories it occupies, and the ban is set to go into effect this month, 90 days after the law was enacted.

The newspaper quoted UN officials as saying that they are preparing to close UNRWA activities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, because the laws will prohibit Israeli officials from dealing with UNRWA. The agency says it must coordinate with the Israeli army every time its employees deliver aid or move through Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

“If we are not able to share this information with the Israeli authorities on a daily basis, we are putting the lives of staff at risk,” said Louise Waterridge, a senior UNRWA official on the ground in Gaza, noting that more than 250 UNRWA staff have already been killed in the Gaza war.

Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuli Edelstein, considered that "we gave the government 90 days, and the entire world 90 days. Whoever really cares about the population, let him work to find groups that will help them."

UNRWA officials said the Israeli military had prevented the agency from using crossings between Israel and northern Gaza, an area where Israel has launched intense attacks in recent months.

Last October, US officials warned Israel that banning UNRWA “would devastate the humanitarian response to Gaza at this critical moment.”

In Gaza, UNRWA has become central to the aid response, partly because of its close connection to the community.

Before the war, UNRWA said its 288 schools served 300,000 students in Gaza, nearly half of the territory’s school-age children, and its 22 health clinics saw 2.6 million patients a year. UNRWA also plays a crucial role in parts of the West Bank, where it serves 900,000 Palestinians.