UNRWA director: Israel ban on aid agency will ‘destroy’ humanitarian efforts

The move comes as the agency says it's gaining ground on relief in Gaza.

ByABC NEWS
January 30, 2025, 7:34 PM

Bill Deere, director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), discussed with ABC News on Wednesday relief efforts in Gaza and Israel, highlighting that Israel's order for the agency to leave Gaza could severely impact humanitarian efforts.

The head of UNRWA has warned that an Israeli ban on the organization would greatly disrupt crucial humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip and threaten the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

This ban could impact many lives in the region.

UNRWA Director Bill Deere speaks with ABC News.
ABC News

ABC News spoke with Deere as he explained why the UNRWA chief says Israel's ban will be disastrous.

ABC NEWS: Ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Some are returning to their homes or what's left of them in northern Gaza. But as people assess the damage and begin to figure out what's next, the Israeli U.N. ambassador says the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East must cease all its operations and evacuate all premises it operates.

Bill Deere, director at UNRWA, joins us now. Bill, thanks for taking the time to be here. We appreciate it. After this announcement, UNRWA stressed that pulling aid could be "disastrous." Lay out for us why.

DEERE: Certainly. And thanks for the opportunity to be here. So the way not only UNRWA, but Secretary-General [António] Guterres, sees the situation: is just as the humanitarian community is starting to gain ground on the awful situation in Gaza, implementation of these laws would devastate the response by willfully destroying the U.N.'s humanitarian infrastructure and, Phil, that's because UNRWA represents most of the U.N. staff, the facilities, the expertise and supporting infrastructure for the response in Gaza.

Since the ceasefire we have, we represent 60% of the food entering Gaza, reaching more than half a million people; we're two-thirds of the aid currently in the humanitarian pipeline. We provide 17,000 medical consultations every day. And just this month alone, over a quarter million children, half of them girls, enrolled in our online learning platform. And the situation is equally dire in East Jerusalem in the West Bank.

We provide education to almost 50,000 boys and girls who go to UNRWA schools and vocational training centers. Again, 40 primary health care centers. These are patients with diabetes, high blood pressure, pregnant women, children who need vaccinations. In the last 12 months alone, we supported over 10,000 families in the West Bank in East Jerusalem with cash assistance in response to home demolitions damaged settler violence. And what the secretary general is saying is where will these people go? How is the regional stability possibly enhanced by taking all this away from Palestinian refugees?

ABC NEWS: Bill, how long in your estimation, do you think UNRWA needs to stay in those areas to facilitate rebuilding?

DEERE: Phil, that's an excellent question. You know, let's let's you have to understand what UNRWA is. UNRWA is kind of unique in the U.N. system. We provide government-like services. But believe it or not, even after 70 years, we were never intended to be a permanent agency. In fact, we take our orders from the U.N. General Assembly. It's called a renewal of our mandate. It has to happen every three years. Our operating instructions that we're clear provide basic services to refugees until a solution is found to their like.

ABC NEWS: There have been recent allegations in Israeli media against UNRWA about hostages by hostages released on the first day of this ceasefire, that they were held in United Nations shelters at various points in time during the war. You said in a statement in part that these allegations are without information or evidence. What are you doing, if anything, to investigate these accusations?

DEERE: We're doing our best. It's let's be honest, Phil. First of all, it's incredibly chaotic there even now. Right. But this has been a hallmark of the whole debate between the U.N. and Israel. But Israel has an obligation to help the United Nations with counter terrorism. You cannot simply say X is a member of Hamas. They were held at an UNRWA facility. What does that mean? Does it mean an UNRWA facility that was abandoned during the course of the conflict?

We have 300 of 'em. Was it people being held adjacent to an UNRWA facility because say our schools feel they don't hold that many people. But what people have done during the conflict is put up tents and settle around our facilities in order to in the hopes, I should say, that the U.N. flag would offer them some level of protection. So without information and without evidence, it's very difficult to proceed.

ABC NEWS: Well, do you know if there have been any or are any are you investigating those specific allegations?

DEERE: Sure. Every allegation that is brought to our attention with information gets investigated.

ABC NEWS: All right. Bill Deere, director at UNRWA, thanks for taking the time. I really do appreciate it.

DEERE: Thank you, Phil.

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