Foreign Minister Israel Katz officially announced on Monday morning the cancellation of the 1967 agreement between Israel and UNRWA, the UN agency for “Palestinian refugees”. This agreement formed the legal basis for relations between the State of Israel and UNRWA.
Minister Katz said, “UNRWA – the organization whose employees participated in the October 7 massacre and many of whose employees are Hamas operatives – is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said in response to the letter, “Following the legislation on UNRWA, we officially informed the President of the General Assembly of the termination of cooperation with the organization. Despite the overwhelming evidence we submitted to the UN highlighting how Hamas infiltrated UNRWA, the UN did nothing to address this reality.”
UNRWA, which has long been criticized for cooperating with Hamas, has come under increased scrutiny as its workers have been found to have been directly involved in Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.